


Rookie's Pursuit

by jetblackprelude



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Detective and Thief AU, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Gen, M/M, Mystery, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-07
Updated: 2018-08-27
Packaged: 2019-01-30 16:06:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 21,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12656901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jetblackprelude/pseuds/jetblackprelude
Summary: When Shuichi finds a strange card addressed to his uncle, he becomes entangled in the affairs of a mysterious boy who hides behind a smiling mask.A sorta Detective & Phantom Thief AU***08/26/18 - chapters 1 & 2 have been slightly rewritten with altered scenes!! other chps may get edits later too***





	1. Rookie's 1st Calling Card

**Author's Note:**

> I've been itching to write something and I really like Saihara & Ouma's love hotel scene, so I'm trying to write an AU with that concept. I do intend to add characters from the rest of the series, but I wasn't sure if I should tag them bc they're not really main characters. Also, not sure if this will end up as actual shipping bc I rarely do shippy romantic stuff. We'll see how far I go with this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 08/26/18 edit - some scenes have been rewritten

Shuichi Saihara was heading to school when he noticed the card stuck on the windshield wipers of his uncle's car. He picked it up, wondering if maybe it was part of some store's ad campaign. It was about the size of a playing card and on one side had a crudely drawn smiley face with a teardrop under one of the eyes. It was little weird but Shuichi turned the card around to see if there was anything else on it.

_To: Detective Saihara_

_You don't know me but I'm planning a robbery!!_

“Wait, what?” muttered Shuichi.

_You might be thinking Huh?!?! or something, but it's true!! And to make it_ _**convenient** _ _for you I'll give you a time and day so you don't have to be up_ _**24/7!** _ _I'll be there Tuesday, at_ _**11:11 PM** _ _._

_Well... maybe I'm lying~ But it'll be easy for you to figure it out, right?_

_From: A rookie phantom thief_

“What... is this nonsense?” wondered Shuichi.

A phantom thief. A challenge towards a detective. It all sounded like something out of a manga. He turned around and went back into the house; his uncle was in the kitchen drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. A man in his 30s with rugged features and a slight tan, Soumei didn't look that similar to his nephew. They shared the same hair color at least, Soumei having shoulder-length hair and usually pulling back part of it into a small ponytail.

“Um.... Uncle? I found...” said Shuichi before trailing off. 

“Oh! You're still here Shuichi? Aren't you gonna be late?” asked Soumei as he looked up from the sports section. 

His uncle's tone wasn't really accusatory, yet Shuichi couldn't help but stiffen at the questions. It seemed silly now to bother his uncle with something that was obviously a dumb joke. Really, he should have just ripped the card up and been on his way to school. But he was here now so he might as well show him the card before the silence between them got more awkward. Shuichi pulled at the brim of his hat, wanting to avoid looking into his uncle's black eyes, and handed over the card.

“Hmm? This is...?” He flipped the card a few times before reading it, and then he chuckled. “Hah! A phantom thief, eh? Ain't that cute...”

“I w-wouldn't call it cute,” muttered Shuichi. “Strange is the word I'd use for it.”

“So, which Saihara do you think this was addressed to?”

“Well, you _are_ the actual detective...”

“True! But, ya don't think someone from your school is trying to prank you?”

“Maybe... I can't imagine who though...”

“Wanna try figuring it out?”

Shuichi shrugged weakly; his eyes were glued to the floor. The thought of it being from someone at school had crossed his mind briefly. Everyone knew that he was the nephew of a local detective. He was used to students asking him stuff; he'd gotten both serious as well as more joke-like questions since the start of high school. But this card still seemed strange to him.

“Is that shrug suppose to be a yes or a no?” asked Soumei. He had a lazy smile on his face, like this was part of a fun, little riddle to spend some time on.

“I-I guess I wouldn't mind ... if you don't think it's dangerous or anything...” said Shuichi. He did have a natural sense of curiosity about stuff. Although, normally he regulated that curiosity to reading mystery novels or hearing some of his uncle's cases. 

“My gut says this is just from a kid who wants to play cops and robbers,” said his uncle as he pointed at the smiley face. “If it's part of something dangerous, I'll keep you safe. But I don't see a reason to worry based on this note. What about you?”

“Not at first glance or anything.... it looks so childish,” pointed out Shuichi. “Plus, it's odd that it was sent to our address rather than your office.”

“Exactly.” Soumei nodded. 

Shuichi felt a small weight lift from his mind. Even though his uncle could be easygoing at times, he had pretty good judgement for when to take things seriously. He let go of his hat and moved his right hand to rest under his chin as he began to think things over. If the card was just a joke then what exactly was the punchline?

“I-It's like what the card says—it could all be a lie. But, what does the person who sent this achieve from lying? A bit of our time wasted? Typically a calling card is a kind of taunt from the sender; this person might think they can outsmart us?”

“And there's not much of a point to taunt a detective if the person doesn't act on it, eh?”

“Mmhmm... but this is just a possibility.”

Soumei got up from the table and walked towards his nephew. He patted Shuichi's shoulder and said, “Well it's not an unreasonable possibility! We'll go out tomorrow night to see what's the truth. For now though, you definitely missed the train so I'll take you to school!”

“Oh! Um, thank you Uncle.”

Shuichi sighed as they headed to the car. He wasn't entirely sure about anything he had said, but his uncle seemed to like his answer. As long as there was a possibility then it was worth looking into; that was something Shuichi had heard plenty of times in his life. Whenever they spent time together, Soumei would often share case stories with his nephew. Maybe a missing kid had run away or maybe a relative had taken them. Perhaps those abuse charges were justifiable, but unfortunately there were times that the charges were faked. All these different possibilities and the truth would shine once his uncle got to work on each case.

It wasn't until Shuichi was sitting at his school desk when it fully hit him that his uncle planned to involve him in the investigation of this “phantom thief.”

* * *

“Saihara-kun? Hey, Saihara-kun?”

Poke. Poke. Poke.

“Saihara-kuuun!”

Poke. Poke. Poke.

“Saihara-kun! I'm gonna pull your cheeks if you don't answer me!”

“Huh? W-Whaaaa-!” exclaimed Shuichi as the pulling and pinching on his face snapped him out of his daze. Once the pulling stopped he looked up to see his classmate Kaede standing in front of his desk.

“Hah! About time you reacted,” laughed Kaede. “It's lunchtime you know. Are you going keep spacing out or are you going to sit with me and Amami-kun for lunch?”

“O-Oh Akamatsu-san, I'm sorry,” replied Shuichi, he felt his face heat up.

“It's fine, it's fine! So? You coming?”

“Yes...thank you.”

Kaede Akamatsu had transferred to Spring Field Academy right after summer break. It had been a weird time to get a new student, but her kindness and enthusiasm made her quite likeable. Kaede was someone who tried to be on friendly terms with everyone she met, but she only ever invited two people to hang out in the music room. She had almost immediately claimed the music room as “her” room during lunchtime. There had been some concern from the school staff but she assured them that she would keep the room clean. Shuichi was the most recent invitee after the two of them were paired up for a project last month. Once the project was over, Kaede continued to invite Shuichi to lunch, which he greatly appreciated.

When the two classmates reached the music room, they found Rantarou Amami standing by the door like usual. He was in a different homeroom but he had become fast friends with Kaede. The two boys waited in front of the door while Kaede ran off to the staff room to get the keys.

“Hey there Saihara-kun,” greeted Rantarou without looking up from his phone. He was idly playing some puzzle game on it.

“Hmm,” replied Shuichi with a curt nod.

“Something on your mind?”

“....Yeah, I guess so.”

“Let me guess... your uncle wants you to help him with casework again?” said Rantarou, putting away his phone. He smiled a bit when his respond was a heavy sigh from Shuichi.

“Something like that...It's not paperwork, but it's not a real case either.”

“I”m back! What's this about Saihara-kun and cases?” asked Kaede as she opened the door. 

The trio went inside the music room and formed a little circle out chairs. Kaede and Rantarou opened up their bento boxes while Shuichi hurriedly explained the details of the calling card that had been delivered to his home.

“That all sounds real mysterious! Like from a manga!” exclaimed Kaede before digging into her rice.

“Yeah it seems like a game I'd play with some of my sisters, but asking an actual detective to play along is pretty strange,” said Rantarou. He took a bite of pork before adding, “Maybe this is the work of some delusional person? You and your uncle should be careful tomorrow.”

“Wait, wait! Amami-kun don't go scaring Saihara-kun like that!” berated Kaede as she lightly shoved Rantarou. She looked towards Shuichi and tried to smile confidently as she said, “Your uncle is just your average P.I. so I don't think he's gotta worry about something so dangerous.”

“Well, there have been a few abusive spouses and stalkers that he's had to keep tabs on,” replied Shuichi.

Kaede's purple eyes widen. “Well, sure, but he calls the police if that gets serious. If your uncle didn't think he could keep you safe then he wouldn't offer to take you with him!”

“Heh. Sounds like he wants you to move up from doing just desk work,” said Rantarou with a chuckle. “Pretty soon he'll have you solve all the lost pet cases that he doesn't wanna work on.”

“Hey! Don't knock on it, Amami-kun. That's important work too,” said Kaede. “I'm sure Saihara-kun would do a great job finding lost pets!”

Shuichi bit his bottom lip and looked down at his yakisoba bread like it held all the answers to his worries. He didn't like where this conversation was heading; how they both just assumed that he would even want to do detective field work. Maybe it was his fault for helping his uncle around the office; for showing an interest in Soumei's job. That didn't mean he wanted to make a career out of it... _right?_ He had only recently turned 16 in September, he should still have time to think about this kind of stuff. Instead, here he was worrying about everyone around him placing him in a very specialized box. His parents used to do that, before they gave up. His friends and classmates were doing it right now. Was his uncle doing it too? Did his uncle really intend to have his nephew help with more than just paperwork? Could Shuichi actually do that kind of work? He was often told that he was a brilliant kid, but plenty of others were told they were brilliant.

_'I'm definitely not on the level of someone like Kyoko Kirigiri,'_ thought Shuichi as he briefly remembered the prodigy detective that his uncle talked about in the past. She was a young woman now, but it was said she was extremely talented from a young age and helped her father when she was just in middle school.  _'Maybe Uncle wants the glory of finding another young genius? But that's not me...'_

“Saihara-kun?” whispered Kaede as she gently reached out to her friend. “I really do think everything will be fine if you help your uncle tomorrow, but if you're worried about something then you gotta tell him. Tell him it's dangerous and you don't want to try to find this supposed thief.”

“Akamatsu-san has a point,” said Rantarou in between bites. “Plus, like you said, it could just be a prank.”

“Mmhmm... I'll... think about it all some more, thank you both,” replied Shuichi with a tight smile. He doubted that he would be able to gather the courage to say anything to his uncle. He couldn't even explain the exact truth to his supposed friends. 

Shuichi took a big bite of his food and hoped that the conversation would switch to something else. Thankfully it did, as Kaede started to talk about an upcoming piano competition that she planned to enter.

 


	2. Rookies 1st Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to get this up last Tuesday but got stuck on some parts & then was lazy. But it ended up being longer than I expected so yay? Thought of splitting this up but nah, ya'll deserve to have the thief make his first appearance,
> 
> 08/26/18 edit - some rewritten scenes + minor edits

After school, Shuichi headed to the Saihara Detective Agency. It was a modest sized building that employed about 30 people at any given time. There were definitely bigger agencies with multiple branches and hundreds of workers, but Soumei would usually say he liked knowing who he worked with. Shuichi liked it as well. Knowing all of the workers' faces made it easier to spend his time there while he waited for his uncle to finish work for the day. When he arrived at the agency, Shuichi headed straight for the staff lounge where he usually worked on homework. He greeted the few people that he ran into on the way to the lounge.

“Oh! Wait, Shuichi-san!” exclaimed a young woman from her office door. “Soumei-san wanted you to know that he went out to speak with a client. He asked if you could file some stuff for him.”

“I see, I'll go do that right now then. Thank you Katagiri-san,” replied Shuichi. He walked past the lounge and went up a flight of stairs to reach his uncle's office.

It was becoming more often that Shuichi would organize case files for his uncle.It was a simple enough process of going through the written reports, typing up basic info, and then scanning any missing documents. When he moved in with his uncle back in April, right before high school started, he asked if there was any work he could do around the agency to help out. He felt like he needed to earn his keep for living with his uncle. Although, Shuichi was pretty confident that his parents were giving his uncle a nice sum of money separate from the allowance that they sent to him. But he wanted to says thanks and not feel like a burden. It was one of those few times that he was pretty adamant until his uncle relented and gave him a bit of work. Maybe in hindsight, Soumei had taken that insistence to work as enthusiasm for wanting to become an actual detective?

He went through the pile of reports with practiced ease, placing them in order by date as he went along. Sitting alone in the office, it was a rhythmical kind of work that was calming to him. It was interesting to go through reports and learn some of the details. Most of the cases his uncle took were from individuals; things like suspicion of infidelity, background checks, child custody investigation, or finding missing people. A few of the cases were business related, but Shuichi knew those were given to any of the other workers when possible.

“ _It's mostly just a preference of mine,”_ was what Soumei had said when Shuichi went over some files for the first time. _“You get out of the office more often and get to avoid paperwork for a while with these kinds of cases.”_

“ _A-Ah... I see.”_

“ _Hah! I'm kidding! You don't gotta sound so disappointed in me... I think I just like helping the average citizen uncover the truth. And it all feels a bit more personal, ya know?”_

Helping to uncover the truth... it sounded rather honorable to Shuichi.

About two hours passed and Shuichi had finished his work. He had reflected some more about the whole “phantom thief” situation. Technically, his uncle hadn't said anything about Shuichi working on cases in the future. Although, given how Shuichi tended to worry sometimes, it was still within the realm of possibility of happening. He hoped that nothing would actually occur tomorrow; the whole thing sounded silly anyway. If later on his uncle expressed direct interest in Shuichi getting into the business....

“I'll worry about that bridge when I cross it,” mumbled Shuichi as he got up to stretch.

At that moment, the office door opened and Soumei walked in. He had his messenger bag where he put all his detective tools in, and a plastic bag filled with food and drinks.

“Ah Shuichi! Thanks for your help,” said Soumei as he put away his bag. “We can leave early today, I bought some dinner already.”

They locked the office door and waved goodbye to some of the remaining workers. It wasn't until they were in car that Shuichi asked, “How did it go with the client?”

“It went about as good as these kinds of cases can go. It's a child custody case, dad wanted me to find the kid and do some surveillance. I went to give him some updates.”

Shuichi nodded in understanding. He knew that in divorces settled by family court there was a preference to give custody of the child to the mother. Japan didn't really have laws regarding joint custody or visitation rights. It was also common for the child's name to be changed and be hidden away from the other parent.

“The kid seems to be doing alright based on my early observations. Mom gets home late from work so the kid's alone after school for a few hours.”

“Ah.... a latchkey kid,” dejectedly said Shuichi.

“Yeah,” replied his uncle with a sigh. “The kid is old enough that they can take care of themselves at least.”

“Plenty of kids can be self-sufficient, but that's not the only concern,” pointed out Shuichi, his tone becoming a little bitter by the end.

Soumei reached out to pat his nephew's shoulder and the conversation was seemingly dropped. Shuichi turned on the radio and the rest of the ride home the two passengers were rather quiet.

“ _The Kuma Poker Tour will finish off the string of tournaments hosted in Asia this November with the KPT Japan Main Event, which will run from November 23-26. This event follows last year's decision to legalize the development of Las Vegas-styled casinos...”_

* * *

“I bought bento boxes and some drinks today,” said Soumei once they were back home. He set the plastic bag on the kitchen table, “There's salmon, fried chicken, tempura, and gyudon so take your pick!”

Shuichi picked up a bottle of Galpis and looked at the labels of the meals. “It's been a while since we ate convenience store food,” he said.

“Yeeeeah, but I passed by an Usami Mart on the way back from the client,” said Soumei. He pulled out the card from that morning and added, “That's when it hit me; this riddle points to a convenience store. Too bad there's lots of them around Tokyo, not sure how to figure out the specific place.”

“Right...” muttered Shuichi as he sat down, having settled on the chicken. “I could... take a look at the card again if that would help?”

Soumei handed over the card and grabbed the gyudon meal before putting the other two boxes away. Reading over the message again, Shuichi didn't spot anything that immediately hinted at an address. The word 'convenient' was in bold purple while the rest of the message was in black, it was an obvious clue for a convenience store. The numbers also all seemed to be some sort of clues. But which store could it be?

“So we have 24/7 and 11:11 in bold, tomorrow will be November 7, and the date for that is... Oh, maybe that's it.”

“Already got an idea?” asked Soumei, clicking his chopsticks in his nephew's direction.

“Yeah, at least I think I do?”

“That's great! Good thing your better than me at these kinds of puzzles!”

Shuichi gave a small smile and began to eat his dinner. It was probably better to not worry about it anymore.

* * *

It was just 11 PM when Soumei and Shuichi arrived at the 7-OneOne on Tuesday. It was the only 7-OneOne store in the city that **didn't** stay open 24/7. Shuichi deduced that this would be the place that the card referred to, because of the line “you don't have to be up 24/7” in the message. If he was wrong... well that wouldn't really be a bad thing in his eyes. They had a basic plan of Shuichi going in alone and grab stuff to buy, while Soumei waited outside. If there were other customers already then he'd text Soumei, but otherwise his uncle would stay in the car to see if anyone suspicious came in.

“If you need me just call and I'll run in, okay?” said Soumei as his nephew got out of the car.

Shuichi gave a curt nod and headed into the store. He felt his hands get clammy in the pocket of his blue hoodie. A store clerk greeted him as he grabbed a shopping basket, but he didn't pay much attention. His worries had come back just before the ride to the store, so he was trying to focus solely on what he had to do. Shuichi walked through the first two aisles and grabbed two bags of chips and chocolate cookies. He tried to use his cap to hide his eyes as he quickly scanned for other people, though he did worry a bit if it made himself suspicious.

On the next aisle, Shuichi's heart almost jumped out when he finally saw another person. A guy smaller than Shuichi was pondering over what cup noodles to buy. Shuichi turned to face the shelves, hoping that the guy didn't notice his startled reaction. He grabbed a box of curry mix and took a picture of it with his cellphone. Then he started to text his uncle, trying to look like he was messaging a question about the curry, but in reality he was giving information on what he had seen so far.

_[11:08 PM]_

**_Shuichi – 1 customer so far maybe a middle-school boy?_**

_Soumei – OK. I dont see anyone out here either_

**_Shuichi – i'll keep looking_**

Shuichi put his phone away and placed the curry into the basket. He walked past the boy (who was putting multiple cups of soba into their own basket) and entered the next aisle. This area was mainly medicines and toiletries, which reminded Shuichi that they were running out of shampoo. Did he have enough money for that? He pulled out his wallet to check if he actually had enough for everything that he was getting. He was so focused in counting his money that he didn't hear the approaching footsteps.

“Excuse me? ….hey I'm talking to you!”

Poke. Poke.

“Eeek?!?!” squeaked Shuichi as he felt his side be poked (dammit that was his one tickle spot). He flinched away and almost dropped his wallet.

“Nishish- _cough!cough!_ Ack!” the person who tickled Shuichi tried to laugh, only for them to start a coughing fit. They calmed down and said in a raspy voice, “Ouch... ok maaaybe I deserved that for laughing but I didn't mean to startle you right now!”

Shuichi looked up. It was the boy that he just saw in the previous aisle. Even from up close Shuichi couldn't tell how old the boy was. The boy wore a white face mask and his violet eyes seemed bloodshot and watery. He wore a white t-shirt with a design of two dice on it and a black long-sleeve shirt under it. He had black shorts with dark leggings and checkerboard-patterned shoes. His dark purple hair seemed to be messily tied up from the back, but side strands were poking out from under his checkerboard cap.

“Ah... um...it's fine,” muttered Shuichi as he put his wallet in his back pocket and composed himself.

“Good! I don't wanna scare someone I'm about to ask a favor of! _Coughcough!_ ” said the boy in a cheery, scratchy voice.

“A favor?”

“Yep! I can't reach the medicine that I need-coughcough! Ah, but you seem dependable! _Cough!_ And tall. So help me out!”

The boy walked a bit farther into the aisle. Shuichi watched the other with some suspicion before following. They reached the medicines and indeed, the cough medicine was up on the highest shelf. Shuichi went to grab a bottle when suddenly the boy grabbed his arm.

“No, no! I don't like the regular stuff! _Coughcough!_ Grab the cherry or grape flavor pleeeease,” whined the boy as he forcefully guided Shuichi's arm.

Shuichi tensed up. The boy was stronger than he looked and had a vice-like grip. When Shuichi grabbed the right bottle, the boy finally let go. It was right then when Shuichi was sure of what was happening.

“Yay~ You did it! _Cough!_ I'll take that and be on my way now,” said the boy with both hands outstretched.

“Okay...” slowly replied Shuichi, but he didn't move to hand the medicine. “But you have to hand back my wallet.”

The boy's wide, purple eyes stared blankly for a few seconds. Now with a closer look, Shuichi would wager to guess that the watery eyes had been faked. “Your wallet... I see,” said the boy as it dawned on him what Shuichi had said. He moved his hands back and asked, “So, you figured me out huh??”

_'He dropped the act rather quick,'_ thought Shuichi. The boy's tone had changed to something more haughty. If it weren't for the mask, Shuichi could imagine the boy with a wry smile.

“Rather impressive that you noticed,” said the boy, he raised an arm and picked at his nails. “I'm a damn good pickpocket, if I do say so myself. So, what tipped you off?”

Shuichi glared at the boy. Who exactly was this kid? “I suspected something early on, but when you wouldn't let go of my arm... I figured you wanted to divert my attention.”

“Wow, you didn't trust me from start?” asked the boy in mock surprise. His cough was gone, like it was never really there to begin with. “Are you the type who worries a stranger is gonna perv all over you in public 'cuz you're so pretty-looking?”

_'What.'_ Shuichi felt his face heat up from embarrassment and annoyance. He sighed deeply and said, “N-No. You coughed weird, like unnatural, so I was wary.”

“Oh, so my acting's bad? Boo... I tried so hard. I got makeup and tear drops for the full sick effect too.”

“Look. I figured you out so give back my wallet and we can pretend like nothing happened.”

“Your wallet? Oh right, here you go,” said the boy and he pulled the wallet out from his shorts pocket. Shuichi reached out but the boy took a few steps back. “Ah, ah, ah~ There's just one problem. I told someone I was gonna plan a robbery, so I should follow through even if they aren't here.”

_'Oh. Oh no...'_

Suddenly, the boy threw his basket towards Shuichi with enough force that Shuichi stumbled and fell backwards. Shuichi yelped in surprise. He dropped the cough medicine and it broke. The items from both baskets were scattered on the floor. The boy ran off in a monochromatic blur. The store clerk yelled after the boy to stop. Shuichi sat on the floor dumbfounded, until he felt the sticky, grape-smelling medicine reach his hands and he scrambled to stand up. He sighed and began to put items back into the baskets.

“W-What happened back here?!” asked the distressed clerk. “That boy ran off and a man parked outside yelled at him and gave chase.”

“O-Oh that was my uncle, I'm sure he'll try to catch that guy” responded Shuichi. “Although, I think he only took my wallet...”

“I see... I'll go get a mop for that spill.”

A few minutes later, Shuichi was finishing with putting back the items from both baskets when his uncle walked into the store. Soumei's tired and irritable appearance didn't spell any good news for Shuichi getting his wallet back.

“Can't believe I lost track of that damn runt....” bitterly said Soumei while he rubbed the back of his neck. He saw his nephew near the front of the store and approached him with concern in his eyes. “Shuichi! What happened? Did that kid steal anything?”

“Yeah...” said Shuichi with a sad smile. “I caught him stealing my wallet so he tripped me up and ran...off... hmm?”

Shuichi had been moving his hand instinctively to his back pocket as he talked, and he felt something was there that wasn't his wallet. He pulled out a card with the same smiley face as the first one. The two of them looked at that smile with annoyance before flipping the card over.

_CONGRATULATIONS!!!!_

_Nishishi~ ♠_

_You have the great honor of being this rookie phantom thief's first heist! After all, everyone has to start somewhere!_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So! I'm using the current year to plan when events happen. Also some details are based on a bit of truth, well they're as true as a quick google search will let me. The poker thing is real and I found about it while looking up details on gambling in Japan.
> 
> edit - the kuma poker tour used to be called world poker tour in this, but i changed it bc i decided i wanted to use fake names for irl stuff :p


	3. Rookie's Tricks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is mainly set up and small appearances of other characters, so I wish I had finished it sooner. But I'll try to keep doing at least one chapter per week. I think that's the closest thing to a schedule that I can manage.  
> Nevertheless! Thank you all for the comments and kudos! I hope to keep writing this since I do have some sort of structure that I want to follow.

It was early Wednesday morning, Soumei was getting a pot of coffee ready and mulling over what happened the night prior. The drive back had been quiet, and Shuichi had immediately excused himself and headed to bed once they got back home. Fair enough. It had been an irritable experience for the two of them. The thief had apparently planned his escape route in advance and Soumei ended up loosing track of the little brat. The security camera footage also hadn't been much help.

_'Well Soumei... that definitely wasn't your best idea'_ he thought to himself. _'Guess your intuition has started getting shaky...'_

His so called detective's intuition that he cultivated during his almost ten years working had served him pretty well in many cases. And he  _had_ been right in suspecting that the calling card was made by a kid, but getting Shuichi involved seemed to be more damaging than he expected. Not really in a physical sense (although it must have hurt to be pushed over along with a ton of groceries) but his concerns were more for his nephew's confidence. Detective work wasn't really as constantly thrilling as the TV dramas made it out to be, but it did have it's moments at times. Shuichi would surely find some enjoyment in helping to solve a case....  _right?_

With a mug of coffee in hand, Soumei walked up the stairs and headed to Shuichi's room. He knocked on the door and said, “Yo, Shuichi! Are you awake?” No immediate response... he knocked the door again. Shuichi always locked his door at night. He was about to knock a third time when the door finally opened.

“Hnnn... Uncle... sorry,” mumbled Shuichi. “I couldn't sleep...” He stifled back a yawn. His hair stuck out in odd angles and his eyes were almost closing back. 

“I know,” said Soumei in a hushed voice. “It'll be alright. I'll make sure to replace your wallet and everything. For now, have some coffee.”

Shuichi nodded sadly and took the mug. He muttered a quick 'thank you' before walking back inside the room. Soumei sighed and went back downstairs for his own coffee.

Soumei never expected to become a father figure. He  had been apprehensive about taking care of his nephew for three years. But Shuichi's parents were going halfway across the world for work, and they deemed it too long of a time for their son to be without supervision. So they started hinting at their family members who lived in Tokyo to see who would offer to take their son in first. By the time they approached Soumei with the question, he was pretty sure that no one had really taken the bait. He wasn't a complete stranger to Shuichi, but it had been years since he last visited his nephew. Soumei remembered their first meeting when a six year old Shuichi was so shy that he cried and tried to hide in his room. Now that he was older, Shuichi was still shy and nervous but it was more apparent that it was because of self-doubt and anxieties. And despite Soumei's concerns, he didn't really know how to help his nephew. So when Shuichi expressed interest in his detective work, Soumei saw a great opportunity in front of him. But things were never that easy.

* * *

It took Shuichi about half an hour to get dressed and come into the kitchen. He poured himself a second cup of coffee and sat down. Whenever he had a poor night of sleep, he ended up needing 2-3 cups before he felt alright. He was vaguely aware that his uncle set a plate of food for him and then left the kitchen. He wanted to forget everything that happened, but his mind wouldn't let him. He'd been fretting about it all night. His money, ID cards, subway pass... all of it taken away by some brat. He was so stupid to have it stolen right from under him. He should have done something different. He should ha-

“Oi! Shuichi! Shuichi!” yelled Soumei as he walked back into the kitchen. And in one of his hands was a black wallet that looked a lot like Shuichi's.

“....Huh? H-How? Where? Is it-” rambled Shuichi as stared incredulously.

“I found it on top of the newspaper when I went to pick it up just now. Looks like everything is in there,” said Soumei as he handed over the wallet. “Also, there's another card.”

Shuichi frowned.  _'What is that guy trying to do now?'_ he wondered as he looked over his wallet. His uncle was right, not even the money that he counted last night was taken. The thief's card had a new, more polished designed—a monochrome checkerboard pattern broken up by a large diamond in the center. The diamond was split down the middle into a red and a white section. On the red side it appeared to be half of a grinning face, but the white side had only an eye and teardrop.

_To: Shuichi Saihara_

_Nishishi! Were you trying to forget about last night? It must have been suuuuuper embarrassing for you!_

_Oh but I won't let you forget about me that easily~ ♥_

_I'm so lucky to have a relative of Detective Saihara to test my skills on! Do your best Saihara-chan, because I'm going to bug you from now on!_

_From: A rookie phantom thief_

_P.S.- Since most of what I do is off the cuff, I still gotta come up with a cool name! Any ideas?_

“Ugh, he seems more of an annoying clown than a phantom thief,” grimaced Shuichi. He felt like he was going to need another cup of coffee soon.

“Want me to get a cop buddy to dust for fingerprints on that?” asked Soumei, pointing to Shuichi's wallet.

“No, it's fine...” sighed Shuichi. “This guy might not have a criminal record to find him. I'll just ignore this card and any others if he does try something again.”

Soumei nodded. He wasn't sure that was the best idea. In fact he was becoming more curious about this strange kid who apparently returned what they stole. But maybe it would be better for his nephew to ignore it all. The two of them ate breakfast and tried to have small talk that didn't involve the odd thief.

* * *

At school, Shuichi worried for part of the morning over what he would tell Kaede and Rantarou if they asked about last night. Saying that he got tricked seemed... mortifying to admit. He had settled with just lying and say that it had been an uneventful night. When lunchtime rolled around however, Kaede came to his seat with an apologetic look and her hands clasped in front of her.

“Saihara-kun, sorry but I want to be by myself in the music room for the rest of the week,” she said in a rushed manner. “To practice! That's what I mean! I have to practice!”

“Oh... oh right your competition is soon,” replied Shuichi.

“Yeah! Yeah, it's on Saturday evening! My practices after school just aren't enough! I need to play piano every second I have!” 

It was hard to tell if Kaede was worried about how he'd respond or if she just really wanted to run to the piano and practice. Shuichi tried to smile and said, “I understand, good luck with practice then.”

Kaede smiled and turned around to leave the classroom, but halfway out the door she seemed to have remembered something and went back to Shuichi's desk. “Oh! I wanna invite you and Amami-kun to see my recital! I'll have the tickets tomorrow! If your not already busy of course!”

“Sure I'd love to see you play, Akamatsu-san. Ah, what should I wear? Is my school uniform alright?”

“Well it's a bit formal, but you wear your uniform pretty neatly so I think you can get away with it. Maybe just take off your cap?”

“I see.”

“Okay I'm off to practice now! If you have any questions just ask me! See ya!”

Shuichi waved goodbye before getting out his lunch. He might as well eat at his desk like he usually did before Kaede started inviting him. He briefly wondered if he should try to find Rantarou and eat with him, but Rantarou was more Kaede's friend than his own.

* * *

On Friday afternoon Shuichi was heading to the detective agency when he noticed a trio of girls with a black trunk at the station square. A girl with long black pigtails was waving her arms around, trying to catch more people's attention. Meanwhile, a dark skinned, blonde girl pulled out a small table from the trunk and a tiny redhead girl was wringing her hands together in nervousness.

“Everyone! Please come see the Dream of Magic Show! Be amazed as Yumeno-san's magic puts a smile on your face!” exclaimed the pigtails girl.

_'Oh a magic show, seems cute but I should probably get going,'_ thought Shuichi as he checked his phone for the time.

“Hey you. Aren't ya gonna watch the show?”

Shuichi looked up in surprise, the pigtail girl was now standing in front of him with her arms crossed and a look of annoyance.

“You've been staring at us set up a lil' too long, ya know?” sneered the girl.

“I-I was?” stammered Shuichi. “Um... I'll just be on my way then...”

“Now, now Tenko! Don't go scaring away a potential audience member,” chided the blonde girl as she skipped up to the two of them. “I'm sure that fate intervened and made this young man stop here. Isn't that riiight?”

“Um, yes I want to watch the show... please,” said Shuichi. If the first girl didn't make him apprehensive, then the second one surely did. Something about her airy tone seemed like it could hide a more menacing side.

“Hmph! Fine then! But I'm watching you, degenerate male!” said the black haired girl, who was apparently Tenko. She ran off to find more people to watch the show.

Shuichi sighed as he followed the other girl to where the show would start. A small crowd was starting to form. The redhead girl, probably Yumeno-san, was now wearing a witches' hat and tying a cape around herself. A woman with tan skin and wearing gym clothes was trying to catch the small girl's attention.

“Yo! Are your tricks free to watch?” asked the woman.

“They're not tricks it's actual magic,” mumbled the tiny redhead. “But yes, this is a free show.”

“Awesome!” the woman replied and then turned towards where a group of kids were waiting. “Hey ya'll come and watch the magic trick show!”

“N-Nyeh! Are these your kids or something?”

“Nah, these are my siblings! Oi, are all of you here?”

A group of seven or eight kids excitedly ran up towards the woman, they all had messy brown hair like their older sister. They pushed their way closer to the front, almost bumping into Shuichi a couple of times. The crowd had grown to a sizable amount and it looked like the show would be starting soon.

“Hmm, this seems interesting,” said a hushed voice that Shuichi might not have heard if the person hadn't been right next to them. “But it's hard to see from here with my height...”

“H-Here, you can stand in front of me if it helps,” said Shuichi as he stepped a bit back.

The person turned to Shuichi and smiled. They were a gothic looking boy; tiny and mostly covered up by a black cloak with a skeleton design on the front. His short hair was a pale lilac and their side-swept bangs covered one of their violet eyes. The boy said a quiet thanks and moved up front.

It was an enjoyable magic show, the Yumeno girl clearly had been doing this for some time now. She started off with making handkerchiefs turn into other things like a magic wand and flower bouquet. A few card tricks were done with some of the audience, making the cards appear and disappear in different parts of the person's body. Some of the kids screamed in amazement when she made the small table float in the air and move around by only grabbing onto the ends of the table cloth. Her final trick involved a seemingly empty box. She placed a drawing of a white tiger into the box and then covered it with a cloth. After spinning the box a few times, she uncovered and opened it to reveal a white cat inside. The crowd all clapped as Yumeno bowed (the woman and her siblings cheered especially loud) and then slowly the group began to disperse.

“That was rather cute,” whispered the gothic boy as he turned to look at Shuichi. “A bit more boring than I would have liked though... I figured out some of those tricks kinda quick. What about you?”

Shuichi hadn't expected the stranger to start talking to him and so he fumbled a bit, “Ah, um... m-maybe you're right, some of those tricks were pretty standard. But I didn't think too hard about that, because... sometimes it's best to not know.”

“Hmmm, you really think so?” asked the boy, but he seemed to not expect an answer as he put on his hood and turned away. “I've gotta go now, maybe we'll see each other another time.”

“Um, bye then,” said Shuichi. He pulled out his phone to check the time and realized the show went on longer than he had expected.

The gothic boy watched from a distance as Shuichi ran off to the detective's agency. He smiled mischievously to himself and then walked off in an opposite direction. _'I knew I'd run into him but I wasn't sure how I'd get close enough to slip that in his bag. Good thing those girls had their dumb show here and it kept him distracted. We'll see each other real soon, Saihara-chan.'_

* * *

Shuichi arrived at the agency out of breath. He had texted his uncle along the way about being stopped for a magic show. Soumei laughed a bit and felt it wasn't a big deal (“Just text a bit sooner next time” he had said). Shuichi headed to the lounge to do homework. As he opened his bag and pulled books out, he found another calling card inside. He stared disbelievingly at the card. When did this happen? He debated even reading it but his curiosity on the whole matter won in the end.

_To: Saihara-chan_

_I've missed you so, so much! I just had to see you again!_

_That was a lie, I don't care about you one bit. I just need to test some stuff._

_My next target is an Angel of Music! She's master of many keys, oh but I wonder if she's got the key to your heart too?_

_From: Phantom Thief Harlequin ♠_

_P.S. - What do you think of my thief name? Too long? I gotta thank you for giving me an idea to work with! Oh, but I'm not annoying~_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Ouma's beta designs so much, they're all great.


	4. Rookie Rhythm Thief

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back with a slightly longer chapter! Actually it was going to be longer but I felt like cutting it off :) It's super late so I hope there's no mistakes... Thanks again to everyone who's reading this story. It means a lot!!  
> If you wanna hear the song Kaede plays - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2WidZErnD0

“Hey Shuichi, is everything alright?”

Soumei glanced at his nephew from across the kitchen table. Shuichi kept absentmindedly picking at his dinner, a pensive look on his face. The teen had been rather quiet ever since they left the agency. After not getting a response, Soumei sighed and reached out to flick Shuichi's cap. That finally got a reaction out of the teen, who looked mildly annoyed and took a bite of rice rather than answering.

“Heh, sorry,” chuckled Soumei. “You look like you've got something heavy on your mind. So...?”

Shuichi chewed slowly, thinking over what to say. He didn't want to bring up the thief again, not after telling his uncle he would ignore any of their antics. He settled with responding, “I'm worried about tomorrow's recital. I've never been to one before.” There. A half truth wasn't so bad. After thinking it over on the ride home, he was pretty convinced the card pointed to Kaede being the thief's target. So the recital was a possible time it could happen.

“Hmm,” nodded Soumei, finding it a good enough answer. “It's at the Tokyo Opera City right? You know where you're heading?”

“Amami-kun is going to take me, I should be fine. I'm just... worried about the crowd. Worried I'll make a fool of myself or something,” he sighed and ate more food. That part also held some truth. It had been something he worried about back when he got the ticket from Kaede, but had mostly locked the thoughts away.

“Well, you just need to sit in the crowd and clap when the musicians finish their pieces. I bet that Akamatsu girl is a hundred times more nervous. Isn't this her first big performance?”

“She said she played at her middle school's talent show and some family events, but yeah she's never performed in a recital hall. She seems more excited than nervous though...”

“She sounds like an energetic girl from what you've told me. I'm glad she made friends with you.”

Shuichi nodded. From a young age he tended to keep to himself, and that was pretty much how he started his first year in high school. He'd made a few friends in the past, but keeping in contact outside of school was always trouble for him. At times he had his doubts about remaining friends with Kaede and Rantarou, but it was nice for right now. Plus, Kaede inviting him to this recital of hers was a pretty good sign. With all that in mind... Shuichi hoped he could stop whatever that self-proclaimed Harlequin was planning to do.

How did that guy know about Kaede anyway? Was Shuichi being stalked? This guy was certainly not in the same homeroom, but maybe still someone at school? Shuichi would have kept on this train of thought if it weren't for his uncle bopping his cap for a second time tonight.

“Shu~ichi! You're ignoring your poor uncle again,” said Soumei in mock annoyance. “I was asking you what were you gonna wear tomorrow.”

“Sorry... um.. Akamatsu-san said my uniform was fine...” said Shuichi as he tried to recall that conversation. He saw his uncle frown and decided to quickly add, “Well I might have something else to wear, I haven't really checked.”

“You should take the chance to dress up a little! There's that blue button-up I got you for your birthday, it's practically new.”

“I'll pick something out before I go to sleep,” replied Shuichi and he tried to focus on finishing his dinner so that he could excuse himself.

* * *

Shuichi looked through his closet for an outfit, but his mind was preoccupied with what could happen tomorrow. This thief might be more than a lowly pickpocket if he could gather information about Shuichi's daily life. That P.S. note at the end had been strange... the writer thanked him for the name idea, but how would Shuichi have offered a suggestion?

_'He's hearing into my conversations,'_ thought Shuichi as he pulled out the blue shirt his uncle had mentioned earlier. _'But how? And since when? ….He said he wasn't annoying, did I say that? The only time I've talked about that guy was with Uncle... on... Wednesday. When I got back my wallet.'_

He grimaced and quickly reached into his back pocket. There was no way... right? He went to his desk and began to empty out his wallet. Checking the inside, Shuichi noticed what appeared to be a tiny square of fabric stitched onto one side. It protruded out a little, if Shuichi's guess was right then there was likely a small listening device inside. He closed the wallet and hid it in a drawer. He buried his face into his hands and sighed deeply. So many more questions and implications were coming to mind now.

_'Okay, so he's moved up from pickpocketing to spying.... great. No point bothering Uncle right now, he's working late tomorrow. I'll bring this up later... At least this probably means he isn't targeting Akamatsu-san because he knows her, he could have overheard when she invited me. I wonder how he plans to get in...'_

His phone rang, bringing his thoughts to a sudden halt. It was a LINE notification, Rantarou had sent him a message. Even though he had both Kaede and Rantarou's contact information, Shuichi really didn't talk to them often. He was a little puzzled when he saw Rantarou had sent a sticker of a cute kitty with flowers. Before he could respond, Rantarou sent a few text messages.

**[Nov 1010:16 PM]**

**Rantarou – hey saihara-kun**

**Rantarou – since we're going to the recital place together it's ok if we stop at a florist?**

_**[Another kitty sticker was sent, this one with question marks on it.]** _

**Shuichi – I don't mind, it's your call really**

_**[The next sticker was of a bunny happily cheering.]** _

**Rantarou – just checking with you**

**Rantarou – ordered akamatsu-san flowers for her big day**

**Shuichi – oh! ...should I get her something too then?**

**Rantarou – well my sisters always wanted gifts when they did recitals & stuff**

**Shuichi – ….better safe than sorry?**

The conversation kept going for a while longer, with Rantarou offering some possible last minute gift suggestions to Shuichi. They decided on what time to leave to get to the recital on time, and then said their good nights. Shuichi sighed and got ready for bed, he knew he'd be worrying about the potential thief until he would pass out from exhaustion.

* * *

Saturday classes passed by fast, probably because Shuichi slept through two of them (coffee hadn't helped much this morning). He stopped by a shop that Rantarou recommended, bought Kaede a gift, and then went back home to get ready. Now, as for a plan to deal with Harlequin.... he hoped that whatever came his way he would be able to react on the fly.

Rantarou arrived at five like they had planned, and Shuichi was a bit taken aback at how proper the other boy looked. He was used to seeing Rantarou with messy hair and uniform worn casually. Seeing his friend with slicked back hair and a brown suit was an odd sight. Shuichi was silently glad that he listened to his uncle, although his dress shirt and black pants felt a little simple in comparison. The Amami family driver took them to the florist to pick up the bouquet of white and purple flowers. They then headed to Tokyo Opera City, a tall skyscraper that Shuichi guessed was about 50 floors.

“Don't worry Saihara-kun,” said Rantarou. “The recital hall is on the B1 floor.”

“O-Oh that makes it easy. Um, what are on all the other floors?”

“There's a bigger concert hall on the 3rd floor, lots of different stores and restaurants, and a bunch of other stuff. But actually most of these floors are just company office spaces.”

Shuichi nodded and followed Rantarou inside. He hadn't quite expected to end up in a posh mall full of high end places to eat and shop at. They passed by a cafe with a lovely aroma of coffee that made Shuichi stop for a minute. They reached the recital hall and handed their tickets to enter. It was a shoebox-style hall with a piano on the stage. A few people were already sitting down, and at the front row was Kaede talking to a couple who were presumably her parents. When Kaede noticed Shuichi and Rantarou, she smiled and walked towards them. She was wearing a purple dress with a small jacket.

“Hey Akamatsu-san,” said Rantarou as he handed her the bouquet.

“You trying to flirt with me or something?” mockingly said Kaede before laughing. “Hah! I'm kidding, these are lovely, thanks Amami-kun!”

“Well, Saihara-kun got you something too,” he said as he motioned for Shuichi to come closer.

“Good evening Akamatsu-san,” muttered Shuichi, holding up the small blue gift bag.

“Saihara-kun! You're not wearing your hat!”

“Well yeah...”

Kaede laughed again. “Let's go to my dressing room for a little while! I've still gotta do my makeup.”

They headed backstage and entered the dressing room with Kaede's name on the door. Normally, this room was meant for about 3-4 people, but it was a small event with 3 musicians and in a sudden spirit of kindness, the staff let them have separate rooms. There was a closet door on one side, and a door leading to a restroom on the other side. There were some chairs for lounging around and a TV set. On the back wall was a large vanity table with mirrors and lights. She placed the flowers on the vanity table and then sat down with the gift bag on her lap. The two boys grabbed chairs and dragged them towards where Kaede sat, forming a little circle like they usually did during lunchtime.

“So, Akamatsu-san,” said Rantarou. “Ready for tonight?”

“Heh, ready? Hah! Of course I'm ready! Everything is going to go great! Hah...hah..,” exclaimed Kaede, her laughter dying out by the end.

The two boys looked at their friend in understanding. Slowly, Kaede's smile dropped and she sighed, “Okay... inside I'm totally freaking out! I haven't been able to do my makeup properly 'cuz my hands keep shaking! B-But... I think I'll be okay once I'm in front of the piano... I think.”

“Right, you'll do fine once the music starts,” consoled Rantarou. He grabbed the small makeup bag on the table and started looking through it. “Don't worry I'll do your makeup. Let me pick some stuff.”

“Thank you...” said Kaede. She turned to Shuichi and tried to smile, “Let me open your present then!”

She pulled out the tissue paper from the bag and found a cardboard box inside. Ripping open the top, she saw an oval-shaped box with ornate detailing around it. It fit in her palm and had a little wind-up key in the back. Kaede smiled excitedly and wound up the key. When she opened the top, a soft melody began to play.

“Oooh, it's Clair de Lune isn't it? Such a pretty song,” she said. “Thank you Saihara-kun!”

“Amami-kun gave me the idea,” said Shuichi with a bit of embarrassment. He was glad that she recognized the song because this wasn't a thing that he knew much about.

“Well it's still lovely. And you know I'm going to be playing a song by the same composer tonight, so it's very fitting!” she said happily. Then she added, “Oh, and your flowers were lovely also Amami-kun!”

Rantarou shrugged as he stood up to face Kaede. “Okay, hold still for a sec.”

* * *

It was nearing the time of the recital, Shuichi and Rantarou returned to find the first couple of rows filling up fast. They rushed to get seats on the third row and waited a bit. The lights began to dim around them, leaving only the main stage lights on. A woman walked onstage and welcomed everyone. She talked a bit about the show and then introduced the first pianist. The musician played four different songs, the audience clapped, and then it was on to the next person. Even with the names of the pieces, Shuichi didn't recognize most of the songs. But the melodies were still enjoyable to listen for him.

“Next up is Kaede Akamatsu, starting off with Arabesque no. 1 by Claude Debussy,” said the host.

Kaede walked towards the piano, her earlier nervousness wasn't as apparent to the audience. Still, she took a few breaths to steady herself when she sat down. The song began slow as her fingers rolled down the keys. She reached a crescendo and then it turned to soft notes, which lead into the next part. It was a lovely melody, that made one picture water trickling down a stream. It was a slow, yet lively kind of song which had a soothing effect. Kaede hoped to push aside her worries about the technicalities and let her heart feel the music's calming tones.

But then the rest of the lights were shut off.

“W-Wha-,” gasped Kaede. She hit a few wrong notes before halting her playing altogether.

Now in total darkness, a few people in the audience screamed while others murmured to their neighbor in confusion. Shuichi tensed up in his seat. Was this the thief making his move? The security told people to remain in their seats as they tried to figure out what had happened. After a few minutes, no backup lights appeared to be turning on. The guards began to open the doors and escort people out of the hall. Rantarou turned on the flashlight on his phone and got up from his seat.

“C'mon let's go get Akamatsu-san,” said Rantarou.

They walked up towards the stage where Kaede was still sitting. Rantarou shone the light a bit on her as they neared. Her face was drooped down, you couldn't make out her expression at first. But her hands were balled up into fists beside her. Finally she looked up, her lips tightened in a thin line. There were pinpricks of tears in her eyes. The boys looked at her with sympathy, not really sure what to say. Shuichi offered a hand but she rejected it and got up on her own.

“I want to go to the dressing room,” she said in an eerie quiet voice.

Kaede took a few tentative steps into the dark. Shuichi turned on his own phone's light and went to walk ahead. They couldn't see too far ahead of them, and so walked slowly towards the backstage. No one else was in this area, the staff must have been dealing with the larger crowd or trying to figure out what had happened. Shuichi was the first to notice that the door to Kaede's room was wide open, and the feeling of dread in his gut only intensified.

“W-We should go back,” he told the others before they could get a better look at the door.

Kaede's brows furrowed and asked, “Wait, is something—what the hell?” She grabbed Shuichi's arm and shone the light more to the front. She groaned in frustration and walked into the room, dragging Shuichi along with her while Rantarou followed. Someone had definitely been in this room, but they had apparently fled. There were clothes scattered on the floor that came from the closet which was left open. The small trashcans were knocked down, spilling what little was in them. It seemed like whoever was in here had a lot of fun playing with Kaede's makeup. There was a mess on the table and the floor of different broken makeups, and on the mirror was a smiley face drawn in lipstick that was all too familiar to Shuichi. The flower bouquet and gift bag had disappeared from their spots on the table.

“Ugh! What's fucking going on here?!” yelled Kaede. “Do I just have the worst luck or something?!!”

Rantarou slowly looked around the room and said, “Getting mad won't help our situation. Maybe we should see if there's a clue on where this person went?”

“R-Right, though I'm not sure what kind of clue we can find here,” she sighed dejectedly.

Even so, Kaede pulled out her phone and flipped on the light so that she could search on her own. The three separated and tried to look around the room. Shuichi was furious with himself, he should have done something. Maybe the staff wouldn't believe him but his friends might have trusted him. Rantarou went to check the restroom while Kaede looked around the vanity table. Shuichi walked towards the front door, but as he passed by the chairs he heard a soft thud.

“ _Oof...”_

“I-Is someone there?” whispered Shuichi. He shone the light behind the chairs but couldn't see anything.

“Saihara-kun what's wrong?”

“I... thought I heard something.”

“ _Nishishi~”_

A soft chuckle was heard where Shuichi was shining the light, but no one was there...? In a blur of movement Shuichi was able to see a strange cloak (that definitely wasn't there a moment ago) being pushed back as the person under it lunged forward. He screamed as he was thrown on the ground and was now looking up his attacker. The person was wearing a white mask with clownish features that covered the front of the face, but there was no doubt in Shuichi that it was the thief boy.

“Booo... I couldn't see under that cloak so I messed up my escape!” the thief whined as he stood up. He was wearing a black dress shirt and a white suit. In one hand he was holding a bag where the flower bouquet was peeking out of.

“Saihara-kun!” yelled Kaede as she ran towards the two. “W-Who are you?! How were you hiding?!”

“Who am I?” jokingly asked the thief. He raised his arms in a pompous manner, “I am the great Phantom Thief Harlequin!! And your my target today!”

“I thought you just said you botched your escape?” said Rantarou as he approached everyone. “I don't think that would happen to a great thief.”

“Ugh! Everyone's a critic!” yelled Harlequin, placing his hands on his hips now. “Maybe I'm still learning the ropes, but I'm still pretty awesome! Not everyone can shut off the power in only a section of a building ya know!”

“That was you?!” asked Kaede.

“Well that's a tiny lie, I had some help! But I really should be going now!”

Kaede raced to block the front door before Harlequin took another step. “Uh-uh! No way am I letting you leave! You ruined everything! What did I ever do to you?”

“Hmm? Oh, I just wanted to mess with Saihara-chan!” replied Harlequin. He then looked down to Shuichi who he was standing on top of and said, “I'm disappointed though, you didn't do anything to prepare.”

“Saihara-chan?” asked Kaede and Rantarou simultaneously, and they looked towards their friend on the ground.

Shuichi groaned, things were only getting worse. “Please just get off of me...” he pleaded.

“Hush now Saihara-chan! If you aren't going to be a decent opponent then I'll use you as a bargaining chip,” said Harlequin, his tone become a bit menacing. That's when he pulled out from his coat a gun. He pointed his weapon at Shuichi and calmly said, “If your friends try to do something then I'll shoot.”

All of a sudden things became even worse.

 


	5. Rookie Plans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter got a rewrite like halfway in, and ended up going in a slightly different direction, but I think it works for the best.  
> Happy New Year btw, even though it just became Jan 2 here wwww

“Alright! Saihara-chan, get up from the floor slowly and walk with me,” said Harlequin as he stepped aside to let Shuichi move. He slung the bag with stolen items over one arm, and continued to keep the gun pointed at the other boy.

Shuichi didn't respond, he didn't move from his spot on the floor. He was shaking a bit from fear, the thief had to nudge Shuichi with his foot to get the boy to start moving. The thief felt a bit guilty for doing all this, but he was running on borrowed time. Harlequin looked towards Kaede, who was still blocking the way out but she had lost some of her bravado. She moved slowly towards where Rantarou was standing, never taking her eyes away from the situation. With a path cleared for them, the thief grabbed Shuichi's hand and prodded with the gun to get Shuichi to walk in front.

“Okay, well this was a lot fun everyone! But I gotta talk with this guy! So bye-bye!” said the thief, and he sprinted away with Shuichi in tow.

“Saihara-kun!” yelled Kaede. She tried to run after them but Rantarou held her back. “What the hell Amami-kun?! He's gonna hurt our friend!”

“It could be dangerous to run after them,” pointed out Rantarou. “But let's try to find security.”

“I....okay,” she sighed.

* * *

“H-Hey! W-What are you-”

Harlequin dragged a stuttering Shuichi farther into the backstage area. He knew there was a back exit they could take. His mask had night vision which allowed him to run around, but Shuichi was blind as a bat which caused him to stumble at times. Somehow they reached the exit and went out into the cool November night air. They were in a back street and there were some closed stores in front of them. The thief let go of Shuichi's hand so he could put away his gun and mask. At that moment Shuichi collapsed to the ground, shaking and breathing raggedly.

“Nishi~ What's wrong? Not much of a runner?” asked Harlequin, a condescending grin on his face. But with some pity in him, he crouched down and extended his hand to Shuichi. “Come on, let's walk and talk for a bit.”

Shuichi looked up at the smaller boy in disbelief. His breathing was slowly calming down.

“Don't worry, I won't shoot you in some random alley. Even if I _could_ shoot you, I probably wouldn't!”

“.....I-If you 'could' shoot?”

Harlequin pulled out the gun from his jacket and tried to fire up in the air. It clicked a few times but nothing happened. “Not only is this stupid thing broken, but I don't have any airsoft pellets.”

“You threatened my friends and me with a broken airsoft gun?!” Anger was entering his voice.

“Ya, I know it's super lame! I wanted a laser gun but—oh I'll tell you someplace else! Let's go!” He grabbed Shuichi by the arm and pulled him up.

Shuichi pulled his arm away and took a few steps back. He crossed his arms across his chest defensively and shouted, “W-Wait! I'm not going anywhere with you!”

“Ugh! Why'd I get stuck with someone so boring for Plan B?”

“Plan B? What are you—“

“Ah, ah, ah! No more questions,” scolded the thief as he wagged a finger. “You want to ask questions, we gotta leave here.”

Shuichi hesitated and glanced to the side. _'He's thinking about it, that's better than just leaving,'_ thought the thief. Despite everything, it seemed like Shuichi was still curious about this whole situation. Granted, the thief would have preferred someone who would act more on their curiosity... but he could make this work. His plans always had room for improvisation.

“Okay, I'll hear you out,” said Shuichi after some deliberation, letting his arms fall to his sides. “But we can't go too far, I need to come back.”

“Of course! Whatever you say, Saihara-chan! Now let's go,” happily exclaimed the thief as he began walking down the street. “You can ask anything. I'm an open book!”

“.....Who _are_ you?” asked Shuichi, walking in step with the other boy.

“Oh you already know that, silly! I'm—” his voice lowered to a whisper, “I'm the great phantom thief Harlequin.”

“Y-You know what I meant. What's your name?”

“Mmm, nope. Not answering that. At least, not yet.”

“Then when? You know who I am so—”

“Patience, Saihara-chan. I need to make sure you're going to work with me before I tell you something like that.”

The duo stopped in front of some diner a few blocks down. Shuichi frowned but followed the thief in anyway, he seemed resigned to his fate. They sat at a booth in a far corner with few people around, and ordered drinks. Shuichi started to drum his fingers on the table. Harlequin smiled and leaned his arms on the table, “Any more questions?”

“Plenty,” responded Shuichi, his face pensive. “Why are you doing this thief thing? And why pull me into this?”

“I've got plenty of reasons to be a thief,” and he started counting off on his fingers. “To steal priceless jewels, to find who killed my dad, to reform society, to—” he stopped talking as the waitress arrived with their drinks. He picked up his tea and started adding sugar. “But the biggest reason is so I can confront the Queen of Lies~”

Shuichi tapped on the sides of his coffee mug and sighed, “Right... was any of that just now the truth?”

“Hmm... maybe most of that was a lie. The phantom thief shtick is sorta for the hell of it,” He tasted his tea, grimaced, and then added more sugar. “But for your other question, it's partly cuz I hoped for a fun rival and partly cuz you turned out to be related to Detective Saihara.”

“Rival?” echoed Shuichi.

“Yeah! I was sorta hoping for a cool, detective prince to play with. Not gonna lie, kinda disappointed so far,” said the thief with a pout. He noticed Shuichi fidget in his seat a bit after those statements. Then the other boy picked up his coffee and drank most of it in one go.

“Sorry for being a let down,” he mumbled, a bit of irritation seeping through. “In any case, do you need something from my uncle?”

“Yep! But maybe you can help me instead?” He'd stow away that little observation for another time. Right now, he took a quick breath to compose himself and with a serious, blank expression said, “I want to get my hands on a case report that's about 10 years old.”

He got the reaction that he pretty much expected out of Shuichi; silent, incredulous staring. Shuichi was probably trying to figure out if the thief was lying. But he wasn't lying! Maybe he should have opened up with a dramatic sob story to convince the other boy?

“....That...I mean...I don't know... the legalities,” he answered slowly.

“I don't care about something like that! Plan A was going to be me breaking into the office once I finished spying on him.”

“T-That was your plan?!”

“Sure! Doesn't it sound like a fun plan? The audio bug was meant for your uncle, but I think using it on you still worked out,” he explained. He tasted his drink again, it was more sugar than tea now.

Shuichi stared down at his half empty cup. “If... I refuse, that won't necessarily stop you. Not when you've got the tools to shut down a recital hall.”

“Nishishi~ That was real cool, right?” snickered the thief. “And I've got more neat tools planned. I know this total bitch who's shockingly pretty smart. She got a scholarship to this fancy tech school, so she has access to lots of crazy stuff. I still think she can make me a laser gun but that skank said she won't be held accountable if I hurt someone.”

“I think that's probably for the best,” said Shuichi, his brow furrowing. “If I do this, then you'll leave us alone?”

“Awww, and I was hoping this would be the start of a beautiful friendship. But I _guess_ I could do that.”

Before they could continue talking, Shuichi's phone started ringing. He answered it and immediately one could hear Kaede's loud, worried voice _“Saihara-kun!! Are you okay!?! The lights came back on and we tried to tell staff what happened but the security cameras got messed up somehow and people are complaining abo—!!“_

“A-Akamatsu-san! I'm okay,” nervously replied Shuichi. “I'm okay, I'm heading back soon. I'm a few blocks away.”  
_“What?! A few blocks away?! How?! W-Why— Amami-kun what are you—oh, ok,”_ she started to lower down her voice, so the thief couldn't hear her.

While Shuichi finished his phone call, the thief grabbed the bag with stolen items and handed it over with a smile. He pulled out a wallet and set down money for both of their drinks. “Well, this has been fun! Oh, give me your phone for a sec.” He snatched away the phone, added in his LINE info under the name ♠Harlequin♠, and sent a random sticker to his phone. “You're sorta my partner in crime now, so I don't have to secretly send calling cards to you. I'll give you details on the report I want later. So bye-bye!”

Content with the thought of this part of his plan going well, the thief walked out the diner with a spring in his step. He still had other things to work on and perfect in under two weeks. Then he would set his plan in motion.

* * *

When Shuichi got home, it was around 10 PM and his uncle still hadn't returned from work. That was fine, he needed time to himself so he could figure out what to do next. He headed to the kitchen to get ready a pot of tea for when his uncle got home. As the water was heating up, Shuichi sat down at the table to replay what had happened this night.

He had reunited with Kaede and Rantarou outside the front of Tokyo Opera City, and the trio went in the Amami's car to meet-up with Kaede's parents for dinner. During the ride, he explained a few things about what happened but avoided talking about the agreement he more or less made with the thief. He was still unsure about that, he didn't like the thought of going behind his uncle's back and messing with case records.

Even so, a part of Shuichi was very curious about this mysterious thief. Despite acting in a childish manner, the tools and level of secrecy gave a sense that he was very dedicated to whatever plan he had. Unless Shuichi had more information, there was no telling how dangerous Harlequin could actually be. But how could he get any kind of info on his own? Maybe with a phone number he could have attempted an online search, but he had a LINE ID instead. So what other options did he have?

“Maybe this would be easier if I actually _was_ being taught to be a detective by Uncle,” he muttered to himself. The water started to boil and so he quickly turned the stove off. He steeped the tea leaves in a thermos of hot water and left it for his uncle to get whenever he arrived.

Wasn't being a detective what people expected out of him anyway? It wasn't just the thief who had come to that conclusion. When he first started helping his uncle with simple work, some of the agency's employees would ask if he planned to intern there or become a detective in the future. His first year of high school, a few classmates who found out the connection would ask if being a detective was like how it was on TV or they'd ask for help finding things. They were innocent enough comments, but would fill Shuichi with a kind of unease. It was a feeling of expectations being heaped onto him and slowly crushing him. It reminded him of when he was younger and his parents had laid out big plans for his future. He had been so relieved when he moved in with his uncle, but now that unease turned into something slightly different. Because he could admit that he liked helping people, he liked figuring stuff out, and he admired his uncle's pursuit of truth... but the thought of becoming a detective, like how others saw him, freaked him out more than it probably should have.

Shuichi sighed, perhaps it was best if he just tried to sleep. He could figure out a way to uncover that thief in the morning. He double-checked the doors were locked and left one light on, before heading to his room. He locked his bedroom door, changed his clothes, and after some minor hesitation grabbed the humidifier that was stored in the closet. Shuichi would use it at times to calm his nerves and sleep, and it felt like a good time to start using it again.

 


	6. Rookie on the Case!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> woo! a longer chapter than the previous longest chapter (chp4) i'm content with how this chp turned out ^^ a number of names are introduced, and we learn a little bit about our phantom thief!  
> thanks again to everyone who's enjoying this so far! i don't reply super often but i make sure to read all comments

Shuichi woke up on Sunday in a slightly better mood. Granted, he still didn't have an idea for what his next step would be... but he could worry about later. For now he would get ready for the day and go make breakfast. Sundays were when his uncle would sleep in an extra hour and Shuichi would do some chores around the house. While he waited for the coffee to brew, Shuichi checked his phone and saw that he'd missed a group chat.

**[Nov 11 11:15 PM]**

**Kaede – ヽ (#`Д´) ﾉヽ (#`Д´) ﾉヽ (#`Д´) ﾉ**

**Rantarou – still upset?**

**Kaede – my recital.... THAT BRAT RUINED MY RECITAL!!!!**

**Kaede – UPSET DOESNT BEING TO COVER IT!! o(*≧д≦)o))**

_**[Rantarou sent a cute sticker of a kitty looking sad]** _

**Rantarou– there'll be others**

**Kaede – I know.....**

**Kaede – I'll get over it!! I wont let it get me down forever ୧(๑•̀ᗝ•́)૭**

**Kaede – I don’t really get how he found out about me tho???**

_**[Rantarou sent a kitty sticker with a thinking expression]** _

**Rantarou– the easy answer is cuz he knows about saihara-kun**

**Kaede – but Saihara-kun doesn’t know this guy!!**

**Kaede – he's not in either of our classes.... not from our school i guess? (ﾟヘﾟ)？**

**Rantarou – well, either he's putting on a persona & he's very different irl so we never noticed him**

**Rantarou – or he doesn’t go to our school & is just stalking saihara-kun**

**Kaede – I don’t like that 2 nd  one... that’s creepy  & why would he stalk Saihara-kun Σ(‘◉⌓◉’) **

**Rantarou – idk maybe he's smitten w/ saihara-kun & wants to steal his heart wwww**

**Kaede – Amami-kun that sounds like the plot of some romance manga**

_**[Rantarou sent a bunny sticker that was shrugging]** _

**Rantarou – I've got 12 sisters so I've gotten the chance to read lots of stuff like that**

**Rantarou – a mysterious thief sets a challenge for a detective, a game of cat & mouse starts**

**Rantarou – they're enemies, but realize they can't stop thinking about the other....**

**Kaede – oh! And at the end they have to work together o(^∀^*)o**

**Rantarou – of course www**

**Kaede – Saihara-kun when you read this later, don't get too upset! o(´д ｀ o)**

_**[Rantarou sent a sticker of a puppy apologizing and the conversation ended there.]** _

_'Okay, that's not how I expected things to derail into,'_ thought Shuichi, his face turning a bit pink. He knew it was just a silly guess being made by his friends, so he really shouldn't be feeling embarrassed. He typed up a response before continuing with making breakfast.

**[Nov 12 8:44 AM]**

**Shuichi – I'm not upset. But I'd like to figure out who this Harlequin guy is.**

_**[Rantarou immediately sent a good morning sticker]** _

**Rantarou – oh? was i on the right track?**

**Rantarou – you barely know him but already cant get the guy out of your head? ww**

**Shuichi – You're absolutely right, Amami-kun. I'm falling for this guy despite only meeting him like 3 times and not even knowing his name.**

**Rantarou – wwww hey, im sure theres weirder love stories out there**

**Rantarou – ok but srs question here, you gonna tell your uncle? or you feeling like playing detective?**

_**[Kaede sent a hello sticker]** _

**Kaede – mornin' you guys!**

**Kaede – Saihara-kun! If you’re gonna search for this guy, let me know if I can help!**

**Kaede – I wanna give that brat a piece of my mind!୧(๑•̀ᗝ•́)૭**

**Rantarou – i'll help out too, if you decide to keep hush about it**

Shuichi bit his lip. Well he had decided last night to not bring this up with his uncle, but he wasn't going to get rid of his apprehensions overnight. At least he could confide in Rantarou and Kaede throughout some of this. The only thing he felt he really had to keep a secret from everyone was the whole issue with grabbing those case files.

**Shuichi – Thanks you two. I don't wanna have to bother Uncle about something that will just waste valuable time he could use working actual cases.**

**Rantarou – fair enough**

**Kaede – ya know, I'm pretty curious about that guy too**

**Kaede – I mean, where did he get the tools for all that? (ﾟヘﾟ)？**

_'Where he got his tools.... oh that's right, Harlequin did tell me something about that,'_ remembered Shuichi. Boy, he was off to a great start if he was forgetting details like that.

**Shuichi – Actually, Harlequin did mention he had help from a girl who goes to a tech school... can't believe I almost forgot something like that.**

**Kaede – oh!! I bet she goes to Shinmei Industries High! (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و**

**Kaede – it's the only tech school w/ a dorm for girls in this area! I knew a girl in middle school who was trying to get in, dont know if she did though**

**Shuichi – I'll try looking into that then, thanks Akamatsu-san**

**Rantarou – well thats a pretty good lead**

**Rantarou – btw i took that white cloak the thief left behind, it's weird**

**Rantarou – like i think its some kind of invisibility cloak?**

**Kaede – invisibility?! (ﾟДﾟ;)**

**Shuichi – Is that possible?**

**Rantarou – think ive heard of tech like that**

**Rantarou – im not sure how it works but i tried hiding a toy that belonged to one of my sisters & she couldnt find it. must be some trick on the eyes**

**Shuichi – Amami-kun when can I get that cloak from you?**

**Rantarou – hey i can drop by your place around noon  
**

**Shuichi – that's great, thank you. I think I can start figuring out who Harlequin is with this info**

**Rantarou – awesome, call us if you need more help**

**Kaede – it sounds like your on the case then! Good luck Detective Saihara! (*⌒▽⌒*)θ～♪**

* * *

After finishing his usual chores, Shuichi headed to his room and opened his laptop to do some research on Shinmei Industries High School. It was one of the top tech schools in Japan, and research labs would donate the latest tech equipment for students to use. The enrollment of girls was a small percentage, and they all seemed to get some degree of scholarship money. However, there was one girl who this year got a full scholarship and seemed to cause some buzz – Miu Iruma. There were multiple articles about her participating in robotics competitions since middle school. _The Self-Styled Gorgeous Genius Girl_ was one of the more recent articles that Shuichi checked, because it had a picture of her. She had a large grin on her face as she pointed towards a cutesy mascot logo on one of her robots. The photo caption read: _“I always put my mark on my inventions! It's like a seal of approval! A 100% Miu Iruma original!”_

“Huh... I wonder if...” mumbled Shuichi before he pulled out the bugged wallet from his desk. With his phone light he tried to inspect the wallet but didn't find any kind of logo. Maybe the logo was specifically on the audio bug? He'd have to rip open the fabric square somehow, but he wasn't sure how to carefully do that without a seam ripper. Shuichi threw the wallet back inside his desk. Perhaps the white cloak would have that logo somewhere?

He still had time to kill before Rantarou showed up, so he headed downstairs to the living room. Soumei was there, going over some report files and paying half attention to the baseball game on TV. Shuichi approached his uncle and said, “Amami-kun is coming over to drop off something that I need to return to a classmate... um.. so I'll be leaving later and I'm not sure how long I'll take.”

“That's fine, just message if your gonna be late for dinner,” replied Soumei while he wrote something on a sticky note to add onto the file. “I ain't going anywhere, just finishing this report from yesterday's case.”

“Oh, the one about the runaway girl?”

“Yep, she was at a friend's house. I talked to the parents and recommended the usual counselor... they didn't seem too happy about my suggestion of course.”

“Hmm, parents are rarely okay with being told something like that,” said Shuichi. “But I hope they consider it.”

When Rantarou arrived, Shuichi immediately grabbed the cloak and began looking for the logo. Rantarou watched in amusement while Shuichi carefully touched the corners of the cloak. He suspected that the logo would be made with white thread so that it'd blend in with the cloak, making it hard to spot. Sure enough, on one corner he felt embroidery—it was a design of a cartoon mouse that he had seen in the article. Shuichi looked up at Rantarou and said, “I think I know exactly who made this cloak.”

“That's great, you want to go check Shinmei out? I can't stick around but I'll give you a lift there.”

“Sure, thanks. Let me tell Uncle I'm heading out.”

Since it was Sunday the main gate of Shinmei Industries High School was closed, but they were able to get in through an entrance closer to the dorms. The campus had a modern, pristine look to it—with the buildings all having a boxy, geometric look to them. It was very different from Spring Field Academy, which was an older school with more ornate architecture. Shuichi walked around for a bit, trying to find a way to enter the girls dorm and ask for Miu, when a white haired boy approached him.

“Pardon me! Are you perhaps looking for someone? Forgive me for saying this, but I've never seen you on campus before,” said the boy. He wore a black, oversized hoodie with a teal circuit design.

“O-Oh, um yeah I'm looking for someone.... I'm looking for the person who made this cloak,” said Shuichi as he held up the item in question. “I think it was made by a girl named Iruma—”

“Iruma-san? I know her but... may I see this for a moment?” asked the boy as he grabbed the cloak without waiting for a proper response. It was then that Shuichi noticed the boy's left hand was a silver-colored prosthetic.

“Um, on one of the corners there's a logo...” muttered Shuichi as the boy unfolded the cloak.

“Hmm, ah yes I see that now! Yes, this is definitely the work of Iruma-san...” said the boy. He sounded a little disappointed or exasperated, but instantly tried to be friendly. “I believe I know your motivations for coming. I'll show you to Iruma-san, she's working in one of the research labs right now. Also allow me to introduce myself! I'm Kiichi Idabashi.”

“Nice to meet you Idabashi-kun, I'm Shuichi Saihara,” replied Shuichi as they started walking.

“Saihara-kun, a fair warning before I introduce you to Iruma-san: she's... a difficult person to speak with.”

“Um...”

“Now, that isn't to say I consider her a bad person! I've known her since the start of the school year and allow her to make adjustments to my prosthetic arm. But she typically has a sharp tongue.”

“I see...” said Shuichi, not entirely sure what to expect now.

As they approached a small gray building, Shuichi could hear giggling and the sound of machinery. Kiichi knocked on the metal door and yelled, “Iruma-san! Please open the door! I brought someone who wishes to speak with you!” When there was no response he tried again. “IRUMA-SAN! PLEASE OPEN THE DOOR!”

“I FUCKIN HEARD YA!!” shouted Miu, the machine noises coming to a stop. “Goddammit Kiichi, are ya that fuckin desperate for some action?! I mean, I don't blame ya but—” She opened the door and immediately looked at Shuichi in confusion. “Who the _fuck_ are you?”

Shuichi nervously shifted his gaze to the side. Miu was dressed sorta how you'd expect from someone who tinkered with a lot of machines. Her hair was tied up in a bun and a pair of goggles were on her head. She wore pink coveralls, but she had the front open and showed off her chest.

“Um, hello Iruma-san,” mumbled Shuichi, but he was cut off by her pointing a gloved finger at his face.

“Oi shit stain! Speak up!” she yelled. “And don't try to be coy about taking in the view! I know a perv when I see 'em! Hyahaha!”

Shuichi tensed up a bit, but thankfully Kiichi grabbed Miu's arm and pushed her a bit back. “Ahem, Iruma-san! This is Shuichi Saihara and it appears that he is in possession of one of your inventions. Care to explain?”

Miu looked down at the cloak, and she wilted. “H-Hey! D-Don't get all pissy at me! I... I warned that shota bait to be f-fucking careful!”

“So, you _did_ work with that boy after all? Am I understanding that correctly?” asked Kiichi, a bit of irritation in his voice.

“Hyiiiiii!!!” she squealed and pulled out of Kiichi's grasp. “I'm sorrrrryyyy!!!”

She ran back inside the lab and Kiichi followed after her. Shuichi wondered if he had made a mistake in coming here, but he went inside anyway. Miu was cowering behind a desk that was covered in lots of different equipment. Kiichi folded his arms in front of his chest, he looked like a parent scolding their child.

“Um, what exactly is going on here?” asked Shuichi.

“I can explain part of it, Saihara-kun,” said Kiichi. “It started early October, when a boy around our age came to campus in search of Iruma-san. He wished to procure her services in creating a number of inventions, and vowed to pay her. I learned of this exchange after she had agreed with him, so I told her she needed to retract the deal. I also briefly spoke with the boy when he came back a second time, to tell him that he should find someone outside of this school.”

“And you did a shit job at convincing him!” yelled Miu, slamming her hands on the table. “He just kept coming back to pester me like a horny dog! And the money was good! What the fuck was I suppose to do?”

“Iruma-san! You know that as students of Shinmei, we cannot be making money by selling our creations. You especially need to be cautious about this, or you'll lose your scholarship,” lectured Kiichi. He sounded a bit distressed, like he was genuinely worried about his friend.

“S-Shut up! You won't rat me out! ...right? I'll do anything for ya! _Anything!_ ”

“Wait!” shouted Shuichi. “What else can you two tell me about this guy? What was he like? What's his name? How did he pay?”

Miu and Kiichi were surprised at the barrage of questions. “Well, he's a little shorter than myself,” said Kiichi. “His hair was black and his eyes were blue, I think.”

“His hair and eyes don't fuckin' matter though,” said Miu as she walked towards the two boys. “Because every time I met with him, he was wearing a disguise. His hair could be black one day, lilac the next, and pink the next! Shit, one time he was looking like a schoolgirl with pigtails! But he always had a shit-eating grin and an annoying horse laugh!”

“Okay, I'm looking for this guy, Can you give me a name?” asked Shuichi.

“I don't know his damn name!” huffed Miu angrily. But when the two boys looked at her in surprise, she shrunk a bit and weakly explained. “H-Hey! I tried asking him a bunch! He always gave obvious, shitty fake answers! Once he started paying me in cash, I kept my mouth shut.”

“Iruma-san! You're working for a complete stranger!” cried out Kiichi. “What if that money is no good?”

“Nah, I make sure to check the money! Miu Iruma ain't called a genius for nothing!”

“Well... is there anything you _can_ tell me about this guy? I need to find him,” pleaded Shuichi.

“...I might know where he lives. Maybe,” said Miu. She walked to a corner of the room, where a bag was lying and she pulled out her phone. “A couple of times the little horseshit made me go out to these crap-stained apartments like I was some cheap hoe! He always waited for me out front. I hand over an invention and he'd give me a wad of cash. When he got what he wanted he'd climb up some stairs but never went into any of the rooms while I was around. So I dunno if he lives there, but I'll give ya the address.”

“This individual seems to go to great lengths at keeping his identity a secret,” muttered Kiichi. He looked to Shuichi and asked, “Why is that?”

Shuichi rubbed the back of his neck. “I don't fully understand him either, but he calls himself a phantom thief and he uses the tools Iruma-san makes to cause trouble.” He could hear Miu choke back a gasp, but he ignored it and continued talking. “Right now, I think he wants me to find him. Otherwise he wouldn't have left behind hints that led me here.”

“So like, you're his little boy toy or something?” joked Miu.

“I hope he doesn't do anything dangerous,” said Kiichi, ignoring Miu's antics. “If you were able to find out his connection to Miu, I dread to think if a detective had become involved.”

Shuichi copied down the address and said his goodbyes to Kiichi and Miu. He would have to take a subway ride to reach this apartment complex, which was in the Taito district.

* * *

When Shuichi stepped out of the subway station, he thought back to some of the stories his uncle told him whenever he had detective work in this area of Tokyo. Soumei would describe it as “the closest thing to slums in Tokyo.” It was an area that didn't really look run-down, in fact it seemed as clean and safe as other areas. There were lots of small, cheap hotels around, Soumei had explained those were mainly for traveling foreigners. However, this was still a poorer area of Tokyo and as Shuichi followed the map on his phone he began seeing some of the more unsightly parts of it. There were buildings that appeared uglier and more neglected than others. A couple had old demolition signs on them, but Shuichi suspected some people still lived there. He was a little nervous when passing by some drunks lying on the streets, but mostly he just felt heavyhearted.

_'He really might live here?'_ wondered Shuichi. _'Or does he live somewhere else and just met Iruma-san here to trick her if she ever got curious?”_

The address was for a big, dingy apartment building. It was concrete like most apartments, but the dirt and fading dark red paint was what gave it that “crap-stained” look that Miu had described. There were two kids playing by the first set of stairs, running around and chasing each other. They seemed a bit familiar to Shuichi, but he didn't make the connection until a woman stepped out of a room on the 2nd floor.

“Oi you two! It's lunchtime!” It was the dark skinned woman with the many siblings who he had seen at the magic show. She noticed Shuichi and waved cheerfully. “Yo! Are ya lost? Never seen you around here!”

“N-No! I'm not lost!” yelled Shuichi. “I'm looking for someone! I think they live here!”

“Oh! Let me help ya!” she shouted and dashed down to meet him. “I know everyone who lives here! I'm just shit with names.”

“Um... well he's around my age, but short. About this height...” and he used his hand to show an estimate height. “His hair is dark purple, but he wears wigs sometimes. Um... he has a laugh that's like a horse neigh.”

“Yeah I know who you're talkin' about! There aren't any other kids who live here other than him and my siblings,” explained the woman. She lightly hit her forehead. “Aaah shoot! What's the brat's name? Souma? Nah... Anyways! I'll show ya to his place! It's on the 3rd floor!”

The woman picked up her two siblings and climbed up the stairs, with Shuichi following her. She stopped briefly at her room to drop off the kids. They reached the third floor and went to room #5, where she banged on the door a few times. “Hey! Hey kid! Are ya up?!” she yelled and banged the door a few more times.

The door opened slowly and the boy only known as Harlequin was standing there. He was in colorful pajamas, half-asleep and rubbing his eyes so he didn't notice Shuichi. “Ngh... hey Big Booby Sis, why are you yelling so early in the day?”

“Kid, it's past 2 PM! Ya gotta get up!” cheerfully said the woman, and she ruffled the thief's hair. “Look, your friend came to see ya,”

“Hmm?” the thief looked up and saw Shuichi. For a few seconds he had a deadpan expression, but like a switch he turned on a huge smile. “Nishi~ my dear Saihara-chan! You actually came and found me!”

Shuichi was taken aback when the smaller boy went to embrace him. And he couldn't recall the thief calling him 'my dear' before. Maybe the boy was incredibly tired right now? Regardless, Shuichi pulled away from the hug and covered his reddening face.

“Oi kid, I'm gonna bring you guys some lunch! You must be starving if you've been asleep all day.”

“Nishishi! Thanks, Big Booby Sis! You're so nice, even if half the time you can't remember my name!” said the thief. He looked towards Shuichi and then pulled him inside. “Come on in, Saihara-chan! Make yourself at home! I gotta wash up though.”

It was a one room apartment with two doors leading to a small kitchen and a bathroom. There was a futon in a corner of the room with many blankets and pillows. A lot of clothes were just lying around on the floor, and the thief was currently picking through them to presumably find something clean to wear. Shuichi also saw a few wigs on a coat rack, like the lilac one the thief wore at the magic show. There were soda bottles and cans, takeout boxes, chip bags, and candy wrappers everywhere. In a corner there was an old laptop charging and a flip phone on a small table alongside a lamp. Shuichi went to sit near the futon and he spotted an old purple 3DS and lots of YuGiOh cards.

However, what caught Shuichi's attention the most was a large pin board on the wall by the futon. It was covered in hand written notes, cut out articles, and pictures. He spotted the same picture of Miu that he had found earlier today. Shuichi skimmed through the board for a bit, when suddenly there was banging on the door. He got up to open the door and received 2 plastic containers with food from the tanned woman.

“There ya go! Lots of meat and some other good stuff!” she said proudly. She looked over Shuichi's shoulder. “Kid, make sure you eat if you wanna get any taller!”

“I kinda like my height right now,” said the thief as he stepped out of the bathroom in new clothes. “But I'm sure it's tasty. You know food pretty well, maybe cuz you're meat-headed?”

The woman shrugged it off and said goodbye. The thief went to the kitchen and grabbed two sodas. “That's Akane Owari by the way. She's a dunce but useful to have around. Anyways, do you like orange soda, dear Saihara-chan?” he said and held up the drinks, grape and orange.

“Orange is fine... but when are you gonna tell me _your_ name?” wondered Shuichi.

“Oh no! Saihara-chan doesn't know my name yet?!” gasped the thief. For a second he looked horrified, but quickly switched to a smile. “That's good! It means I did a good job! Iruma-chan and Kii-boy didn't find me out!”

The thief walked towards the small table and moved everything on it so he could drag the table to the center of the room. He grabbed two pillows and plopped them down on the floor to make seats. He sat down on one pillow and opened his soda.

“Saihara-chan, you came looking for me faster than I expected. I thought you would hesitate or just wait for my message. Are you more curious about me than you actually realize?” he said coyly. “I'll tell you my name, and more about the case file I want. The name I gave myself is Ouma. My name is Kokichi Ouma.”

 

 


	7. Rookies Game

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter much like the tea date one :p I enjoyed writing it.  
> As I was finishing this chapter, I realized that not much time has passed in story o.o Things should speed up a bit with chp 8, at least a short time skip should happen.

Kokichi smiled at the puzzlement on his guest's face. He had debated for a while on what he'd do when Shuichi finally asked this question. Should he use another name or try to dodge the question entirely? But after so many years with so many different names, he might as well stick to one that he actually liked! He was rather proud of the name he made up when he had decided to start anew! Yet the only people who really knew were Akane (well her knowing it was debatable) and the apartment manager who just called him 'that kid' instead. So he was secretly ecstatic to hear Shuichi say “Ouma-kun” because having someone else say it made it seem more true. Well at least that's what he thought, it seemed like Shuichi didn't share those exact sentiments.

“Ouma-kun... but you gave yourself that name? So what's your real—”

“Nishishi, don't be silly Saihara-chan! Kokichi Ouma _is_ my real name! Just because it wasn't my name like a year ago, doesn't make it any less real.”

Shuichi looked like he had more to say, but decided to drop the subject. “Okay, then tell me more about the case file you want,” he opted to say instead.

“Of course! But I wanna eat first, Big Sis was so nice to give us free food,” said Kokichi. He started scarfing down his meal; it'd been a while since he ate something other than instant ramen. When he looked up at Shuichi he saw the other was just picking at the meat with no intent to really eat. “Saihara-chan, it's gonna get cold if you don't eat.”

“I had a big lunch...I thought I'd eat a little to be polite,” responded Shuichi as he closed the plastic lid and grabbed the soda to drink. “But you can have it, save it for dinner maybe.”

Was that a lie? Something inconsequential like that was likely the truth, but it was interesting to speculate how much of a liar Shuichi was. Everyone lied to some extent, even the people who were awful at lying. Kokichi still didn't have a perfect reading on the other. You'd think someone quiet and nervous would be a terrible liar, but Shuichi _had_ to be lying to his uncle and probably to his friends too.

“Mmph... 'ey! I haf' am ey-deea! Wes' pwuuay.... hangom.. nee to swa-woh,” said Kokichi, with his mouth full of beef and rice. He swallowed and drank the rest of his soda before continuing, “Like I was saying: I have an idea, we should play a game!”

“What for?” asked Shuichi. He watched silently as Kokichi got up to put away leftovers and grab another soda.

“Just answering questions is bo-ring! Let's make it fun!” answered Kokichi. _'Plus, with the right game I get to ask some questions too.'_

“Hmm... what kind of game?”

Kokichi looked around the kitchen. He already had a game in mind but.... he opened one of the kitchen drawers. “How about the knife game?” he asked in a cutesy voice as he picked up a kitchen knife to show Shuichi. He almost laughed at seeing Shuichi's bug-eye expression.

“U-Um no, no, let's not play the knife game.”

“Fineee, but that was a lie anyway,” said Kokichi with a dramatic sigh before putting the knife back. He walked towards a black hoodie on the floor and looked through the pockets, pulling out a box of playing cards. “We'll play with these! Does dear Saihara-chan know the game Cheat?”

“...No, not really,” admitted Shuichi. “But I assume the objective is... lying and cheating without the other player catching you?”

“Basically!” agreed Kokichi. He sat back down across from Shuichi and began to shuffle the deck, making sure to pull out the 2 Joker cards. “Okay so we'll ignore Joker cards to make it easier. Also, this would be better with at least one more person but we can make it work! I'm gonna split the deck between the two of us. We can't see each others cards.”

He dealt the cards with a decent amount of finesse. One card for Shuichi and one for himself, back and forth he went until all the cards were face down in two little piles. “Whoever has the Ace of Spades will start the game. They put the card face down in the center and say 'one Ace' unless they wanna put down multiple aces on the first turn, then they just say however many they put down. The next player puts whatever number of 2 cards they want, again keep them face down. So the players take turns putting down cards; going up in rank like 3, 4, 5, etc. all the way up to King and we start back around with Aces! First player to get rid of their cards is the winner! Easy, right?”

Shuichi had a hand on his chin, thinking over the general rules. “So, at any point we can lie about the rank of card that we put down? If I wanted to play two Aces but only had one, I can lie about the second card and say they're both Aces.”

“Yep! You're so smart Saihara-chan! And sometimes you _have_ to lie, because you might not have any cards of the required rank.”

“Right, so what happens if you figure out the other player is lying?”

“You call them out on it, of course! You yell out Cheat! But, it has to be right after they put down their cards. It's also a game of quick decisions, so let's say... about 5 seconds to either call the other player out or to play your cards?”

“...Okay.”

“Good! Now once a player is accused of cheating, we check the center pile for the cards from that person's last turn. If the challenger was indeed lying, then they have to take ALL the cards in the center. But if they were truthful, then the accuser has to take all the cards.”

“But what does this have to do with answering questions?”

Kokichi grinned. “Nishi, here's where house rules come into play! It's really only one new rule. If a player catches the other lying, then they're allowed to ask the liar one question and it _has_ to be answered truthfully. What do you think? Makes it interesting, doesn't it?”

Shuichi looked at him skeptically. “Is that rule so you won't have to answer as many questions as I'd like you to?”

“Noooo~ What ever gave you that idea?” he said coyly. _'Besides, this lets me ask you some stuff without it being weird.'_

“I guess that's fine...” sighed Shuichi while rubbing the back of his neck. “I should be able to figure out some of your lies.”

“That's the spirit! I'll even give you a freebie! The first lie you catch and I'll tell you the name of the person on the case file.”

With all that said, the two boys grabbed their cards and spent a few seconds arranging them. Kokichi quickly spotted the Ace of Spades, so he grabbed it along with two other random cards and slammed them face down in the center. “Three Aces!” he exclaimed. Shuichi was a bit startled at the noise, but picked up on what was going on.

“C-Cheat,” he said. He turned the three cards over: an Ace, a 5, and a Queen. “I didn't expect the first one would be _that_ easy.”

“Eh, this is like level 1. It'll get harder,” said Kokichi, grabbing the cards back. “Ok, so the name of the case file should be Chieko Saitou. I'll tell you the exact spelling over LINE later. For now, let's play!”

* * *

“I want a time out,” grumbled Shuichi as he grabbed the center pile for the fourth time in a row.

“Aww, look at it this way Saihara-chan: if you have most of the cards, then it's easier to catch me lying! That's a viable strategy.”

Shuichi huffed in response. He supposed there was truth to that, but that didn't make his current predicament any less annoying. So far, Shuichi had been caught cheating three times and he failed his one attempt at accusing Kokichi. The first two questions asked by Kokichi were rather simple—birth date and what's something he liked.

“Another question so soon~ But what to ask...?” said Kokichi. He tapped a finger to his chin. “Hmm.. How about... why is Saihara-chan living with his detective uncle?”

“My parents are working in America right now, so they dumped me with the only relative willing to care for me,” he responded. He was surprised at the slight jadedness in his voice, but chalked it up to him being irritated over the game. So he quickly added, “I don't hate Uncle or anything, I'm glad I get to live with him.”

“How nice... well break time is over! Your move now, I think we left off at 5.”

“Right, two 6s.”

“One 7.”

“Cheat. I have all the 7s.”

“You did it! Now ask away!” cheered Kokichi. He grabbed the two cards and added them to his hand. He had 12 cards in total.

He hesitated a bit, there were lots of things Shuichi wanted to ask after all. But he supposed that asking about the file was the most important question to ask right now. “What... What's so special about this particular case file that you want it so badly?”

Kokichi placed his remaining cards on the table face down. He leaned a bit forward, placing his elbows on the table. “Well, I suppose I have 2 reasons,” he explained, resting his chin on both of his palms. “First one is that Chieko Saitou was someone very dear to me, and I need to learn what happened to her.”

Shuichi was confused. Why was Kokichi speaking about her in the past tense? If he had to guess then maybe... “Um, my uncle doesn't deal with murders or anything like that. You're usual private detective probably isn't qualified for that.”

“I know that, silly,” said Kokichi. A small smile was on his face. “It should be a missing person case. But it's been 10 years and a lot can happen, I'm fine with admitting she might be dead.”

“A-Ah... that's very, um, mature of you,” said Shuichi. He suspected that last part about being fine was a lie, Kokichi's smile looked off to him.

“Oh, I dunno about thaaat,” he said and grabbed his cards again. “But anyways, reason number 2 is that there's also another person I'm looking for and I'm betting on them showing up in that case file.”

“Alright, well it's your turn.”

“Mmm, but we know what's gonna happen next. One 8.”

“You're cheating. So what was all that you said at the cafe like finding your dad's killer and the other stuff? You only said _most_ of it was a lie.”

“Papa _was_ killed,” reaffirmed Kokichi. His smile grew wider and a bit more menacing. “And good riddance I say! He was a useless weakling and his killer is like half the reason why the Saitou case exists to begin with.”

Shuichi frowned and looked down at the cards in his hands. He felt like some pieces were coming together. The reason that Kokichi was living alone and apparently changed his name at least once... it was likely tied to his father's death and this missing woman. He had a hunch that, if he looked over the case file then he'd find out that Chieko Saitou had a small son. It was just the impression he was getting, but it didn't seem far fetch. “....Ouma-kun, this case is personal to you isn't it?” he asked in a hush tone. “Are you okay with me knowing all this?”

“......”

“Ouma-kun?” Shuichi looked up.

“No... I guess I'm not... okay,” he said with a blank face. But then his words started to flow easier. “I mean, I like you Saihara-chan but you're still mostly a stranger. And of course I don't like getting strangers involved in my stuff. But I had to make up my mind like a year ago; that if I was gonna do this then I would have to tell someone at least part of the details.” At this point Kokichi seemed to realize he was sounding a bit _too_ serious, so he broke into a Cheshire grin and continued, “Oh! But at least I found some ways to make things interesting! You know, with the phantom thief thing. Thanks for playing along with me. I've decided you're an okay detective in training.”

“Th-Thanks, but I'm not really training for anything,” said Shuichi. “And... this has all been varying levels of irritating for me but I'm... I think I'm glad to be helping you out.” He tried to give a reassuring smile to the other boy.

“How sweet of you Saihara-chan,” cooed Kokichi, and then he leaned forward on the table and grinned. “I'm so happy I got to meet you.”

Shuichi he tried to move a bit back. “R-Right. Why don't we stop the game here for today?”

“Aww, but we barely played,” Kokichi whined and moved forward until he was half on top of the table.

“N-Next time we can finish the game. When I come deliver the case file in a day or two.”

“Fineee, I'll wait with you at the station then.”

* * *

Kokichi pushed himself up from the table and looked around the floor. He spotted his skeleton poncho and put it on. Shuichi busied himself with putting the cards away before getting up. They walked out and Kokichi led them through a different route that was quicker to reach the station. They'd only have to wait about 10 minutes, so the two opted to sit at a desolate bench right in front of where the train would arrive. Shuichi pulled out his phone and text his uncle that he was coming home before dinner. Meanwhile, Kokichi was kicking his legs up in the air like a kid who had something on their mind.

Eventually he said, “Saihara-chan, this was a sorta nice date.”

Shuichi jumped, accidentally sending an incomplete text to his uncle. “W-What? A date?”

“Yeah! I mean you came over to my place, we had lunch, we played a game, and we learned a little about each other. Isn't that a date?” he asked and looked up at Shuichi curiously.

Instead of immediately responding, Shuichi looked away. That silly joke that Kaede and Rantarou made was in the back in his mind. “I g-guess in a loose s-sense of the term you could s-say that... but I wouldn't... call it that.”

“Aww why not?” whined Kokichi. He leaned his head on Shuichi's arm. “Then what about the other day at the cafe? That was practically textbook definition of a date, I even paid for your drink!”

“After you dragged me away from my friends and threatened me with a toy gun,” argued back Shuichi, still refusing to look at the other. “And what happened to me being a stranger?”

“Well, I _did_ also say that I liked you. Plus, the first step in not being strangers is hanging out with each other.”

Shuichi covered his blushing face with one of his hands. “You know, I haven't said that I liked _you_.”

A loud gasp. Suddenly Shuichi didn't feel that weight leaning on his arm. He cautiously looked towards Kokichi, only to find the other boy's eyes welling up with tears.

“S-Saihara-chan,” he sniveled. “I _trusted_ you! I was ready to pour my _heart_ out and tell you all my secrets... but you don't even _like me_!? H-How can you be _SO MEAN?!?_

“Ack! W-Wait! Wait! Stop that, don't cry! That's not what I meant!” panicked Shuichi. He grabbed a hold of the smaller boy's arms and tried to appear determined. “I said I'm happy to help you and I meant it. And even though things started off weird and troublesome, you were right that it _has_ been interesting.”

“Sniff... you were having fun, Saihara-chan?”

Shuichi faltered and let go. “Um... not really. It's actually been really stressful. But even so, I wanted to know what your deal was. And now that I have an idea of what you want... I want to help you find the truth.”

Kokichi cleaned his tears with his cloak. “Wow Saihara-chan, you almost sounded like a cool detective there.”

 _'What in the world did I just blurt out?'_ wondered Shuichi to himself as he looked down at his hands. Bits of those thoughts had been in the back of his mind, but he never thought he'd voice them. _'Uncle's rhetoric must be rubbing off on me more than I expected...”_

“My dear Saihara-chan!” happily exclaimed Kokichi. Shuichi looked up to find Kokichi way closer to him than just a moment ago. “We're at the very least partners in crime now, okay?”

“Fine, if that's what you want to call it.”

“Good. Oh, and one more thing,” said Kokichi, his voice lowering to a whisper. His smile was rather devious. “Don't feel total sympathy for me juuust yet. Who knows, I might be planning a really nasty and bloody revenge on some people. Nishishi~”

“That's not something you should be telling me after I agreed to be partners... A-And revenge on who?”

Kokichi jumped up from the bench and stood in front of Shuichi. “You can save that question for the next time we play! Right now your train is almost here! See you soon, Partner!”

“Goodbye, Ouma-kun,” sighed Shuichi and he waved goodbye as he boarded the train.

It was a bit crowded, but somehow Shuichi managed to find an empty seat. He looked at his phone and remembered the half formed text he had sent his uncle, so he quickly sent another. He would definitely regret part of this whole encounter soon enough. But he hadn't really lied back there either, there was a part of him that wanted to learn more about Kokichi. This whole issue had only started... really like a week ago. Yet so much had happened since then, the thought of it all was daunting. Just the idea of him being “partners” with the same guy who pushed him at the store seemed like it was impossible. He hoped that things would slow down a bit now that he knew something about the thief.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope dear saihara's thoughts on ouma make sense. I was trying to think back to like the free time events & hotel event, where saihara is pretty much a mix of being tired by ouma's games but also curious about ouma. Maybe I should have reread the events, but I thought about that pretty late into the writing. ^^;


	8. Flashback - A Rookie Gamble

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> eeyyy this fic ain't dead yet!! I wrote something sorta short as a mini-update, while I work on the actual chapter, so hope you all become intrigued by this little flashback~
> 
> reasons that this fic has been in the back burner for so long - I hit like major writer's block, then I started wanting to rewrite previous chapters, then I got lazy. also, irl life stuff happened
> 
> Chapters 1 & 2 have been tweaked, some stuff has been rewritten and I think it flows better now? I'll go through and do other edits to some of the other chapters as I see fit. As for a "proper" chapter update... uhhh I'm gonna aim for sometime in September.
> 
> THANKS ALWAYS FOR THE SUPPORT!!

He watched in amazement as the deck of cards were shuffled with practiced ease. The young woman’s hands were swift as the cards flew through her fingertips. She dealt 5 cards for him and 5 for herself, then placed the deck on the coffee table. They were sitting across from each other on the floor.

“Make sure I can’t see your hand, okay dear?” she said. She was an older teenage girl, maybe around 17 or 18, but she gave off the appearance of a porcelain doll.

“Okay!”

“And do you remember which hands you need to win?”

“....Yep!”

“If you forget, just take a look at the chart I made you.” 

The boy couldn’t be more than 5 or 6 years old, and yet here was taking this game of poker very seriously. His chubby hands picked up the cards one by one, wary of his opponent seeing them. His purple eyes narrowed as he studied the paper on the floor beside him; it had drawings of all the winning hands-- from the strongest royal flush to the weaker pairs. They were betting with pieces of I-chew candy, and before dealing the cards they had placed two pieces each in the center.

“I’ll start first,” said the teen girl. Her manicured hands daintily placed 10 more candies into the betting pot.

“That’s a lot!” exclaimed the boy as he grabbed a single candy and threw it into the center.

“Only one? Are you playing it safe?” she asked with a coy smile. 

“Yea! Cuz, cuz Big Sis is good at this game!” 

“You’ll get good at it soon enough, sweetie.” She looked down at her five cards and grabbed the one on her far left. “I’m going to discard one card and then get a new one from the deck.”

The boy nodded. He understood that if she was getting rid of only one card, then that must mean the other four cards made some kind of combo. According to his little chart, the weakest hand that she could have right now would be two pairs, but her bet was a lot of candy which likely meant that she had a strong hand. He pouted while he looked at his own hand, he only had a pair of 7s. He decided to discard 3 cards, and he couldn’t help but pout when he got another 7 card. Getting three of a kind was indeed better than what he started with, but it would have been much better had he gotten full house or four of a kind.

Looking up at his opponent, he saw that she still had that smile on her face. She placed another 10 candies down, and he set down only one. Now, it was time to reveal their hands. He quietly set down three 7s, a 4, and a 10. He blinked owlishly in surprise when she revealed three 9s, a 3, and a 5.

“Lucky me, nine is bigger than seven so I win,” she said as she picked up all the cards to shuffle them again.

“Big Sis?”

“What is it, sweetie?”

“Your cards sucked.”

She set aside the deck and folded her hands in her lap. Her red eyes held a mysterious twinkle that the boy didn’t really understand. “It was still enough to beat you, no?”

“Yea, but you got super lu~cky! I aaaalmost beat you!”

“These kinds of games always need a bit of luck, and I’m a very lucky person.”

“I’m lucky too! I got two sewens and then I got anotha sewen!”

“You looked so disappointed when you pulled those three new cards though.”

“Cuz I thought you got betta cards!” he yelled with a huff. Then, he was left looking confused. “Um, why didn’t you get rid of two cards?”

“Because, I took a gamble and decided to lie.”

The boy gasped. “Momma says that lying is baaaad.”

“Everyone lies sometimes. The key is knowing _ how _ to lie, so that things can go the way you plan them to.”

“....I don’t get it.”

She raised a hand to cover her mouth, and giggled lightly. “Fufufu~ Well, I lied in the game so I could trick you. I wanted to make you  _ think  _ that I had a very good hand. And you fell for it, so you got sad when you thought that your hand would lose. Sure, I could have lost, but three 9s is a pretty good hand regardless. I decided to take the chance, because I thought it was worth it to show you how lying works on people.”

“Nishishi! That’s like… super villain evil!” 

“It’s fun to trick others into doing what you want them to. Plus, it’s so useful.” She reached across the table and ruffled his dark purple hair. “You’re a smart boy, I’m sure you’ll understand it more when you’re a bit older.”

At that moment the front door opened, and a tired looking business woman stepped inside. 

“Momma!” yelled the boy. He immediately jumped up from his seat on the floor and ran towards the woman to hug her.

“Ko-Kouhei, stop. Stop. Momma is very tired,” said the woman with an exasperated sigh as she nudged the boy away. 

That didn’t deter him at all. The tiny boy pulled on his mother’s grey skirt. “Momma! Big Sis came to visit!!”

“Good afternoon, Mrs. Saitou,” said the girl while walking towards them. She was smoothing her lolita dress and petticoat that had gotten wrinkled from sitting on the living room floor.

“O-Oh, you’re here,” stammered Mrs. Saitou. She grabbed her son’s hands to try stopping him from tugging at her clothes. “Kouhei.  _ Stop. _ Did you open the door for her?”

“....Yes,” said the boy after a moment’s hesitation. “But I checked who it was through the window first!” 

“Your son is very cautious,” said the girl. 

“Big Sis taught me how to play poker!”

“I see…” She knelt down to meet at eye level with her son. “Why don’t you go next door and play spacemen with Kaito-chan for a while?”

“Oh! I’ll go get my lazer gun!” Kouhei yelled happily before running off to find his toy.

Before he left the house, the girl stopped him and handed him all of the candies that she had won. “I’d be happy if you shared these with your friend.”

“Thanks! See ya later~!”

Once she was sure that her son was safely in the neighbor’s house, Mrs. Saitou closed the door and turned towards the girl. “Please don’t teach him games like that,” she said dejectedly. 

“He’s a smart boy. I know he’ll be a better opponent than… oh, say his father,” said the girl. A smirk now graced her lips.

“Tae--I mean… Look, I understand if your folks are upset about the money but---”

“Mrs. Saitou, why don’t we stop standing around and go talk while enjoying a nice cup of tea?”

Without giving Mrs. Saitou time to answer, the girl turned around and walked towards the kitchen as if this was actually her house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The name Kouhei, I'm spelling it with the kanji 幸平  
> Google tells me that first kanji can mean "happiness, blessing, or fortune" while the second kanji can mean "even, flat, or peace"


End file.
